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Lowtiercomputer t1_ixmop80 wrote

Reply to comment by King_Marmalade in If freezing tissue generally damages the cells, how are we able to freeze human eggs and embryos for birthing later? by badblackguy

What is a differentiated glial cell?

Glial cells make the myelin sheath, right?

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Bax_Cadarn t1_ixmqkic wrote

I don't know what makes poorly differenciated glial cells any special but yes, gliala cells makes myelin sheath, as well as supporting cns tissues, and differenciation is the process of a cell turning from a basic, undifferenciated cell into one with a very specific function.

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Neurofish8 t1_ixn0sfn wrote

Depends on the glial cell: oligodendrocytes produce myelin in the central nervous system, but there are also microglia and astrocytes. Peripheral nervous system has Schwann cells that produce myelin.

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King_Marmalade t1_ixnl66s wrote

Glial cells encompass multiple types of mature cells with diverse functions (astrocytes, microglial cells, oligodendrocytes) you can think of them as sort of "helper cells" for neurons. In some types of cancers, cells can enter what is considered a "poorly differentiated" state, where they lose some characteristics of a mature cell and become more stem-like. Some of the cell lines our lab generated were from GBM (glialblastoma multiforme) samples.

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