Migraines are severe headaches that are often recurrent. Sufferers of migraines commonly experience nausea and photosensitivity in conjunction with throbbing or pounding pain in the head. In some individuals, an aura appears before the onset of the headache. The aura can consist of a variety of neurological symptoms, such as brief loss of vision or seeing flashing lights. The exact cause of migraine headaches is not known for certain, but research suggests that they are frequently related to a change in the blood flow of the brain. This change is thought to be triggered by a variety of stimuli (stress, smells, glare, certain food, etc.), which may lead to spasms in the arteries located at the brain’s base and reduction of the blood supply to the brain. Then, according to this view, the neurotransmitter serotonin is released, further constricting the arteries feeding the brain so that in order for the brain to receive enough oxygen, some arteries must subsequently dilate. The pain of a migraine is considered by some doctors to be linked to this dilation.

In order to visualize myelin sheaths and astroglia in a rat brain sagittal tissue section (illustrated above), the specimen was immunofluorescently labeled with mouse anti-myelin BP and rabbit anti-GFAP primary antibodies followed by goat anti-mouse and anti-rabbit secondary antibodies conjugated to Alexa Fluor 488 and Alexa Fluor 568, respectively. Hoechst 33342 was employed to counterstain cell nuclei. Images were recorded in grayscale with a 12-bit digital camera coupled to a Nikon Eclipse 80i microscope equipped with bandpass emission fluorescence filter optical blocks. During the processing stage, individual image channels were pseudocolored with RGB values corresponding to each of the fluorophore emission spectral profiles.