At Jersey Shore University Medical Center, we take pride in the quality of care and range of programs we provide. All of our services are designed to meet the needs of the patients, families, and communities we serve, and our dedicated physicians, nurses, support staff, and volunteers are committed to providing professional excellence with personal concern.
A nerve cell, or neuron, is the basic unit of the nervous system. It transmits information to and from the brain. The structure of a neuron allows the transmission to be quick.1  The Structure & Function of Muscle Cells.2  What Is the Function of Blood Cells?tructure. Nerve cells consist of a cell body, axon and dendrites. The cell body contains the nucleus and other cellular compartments. The axon is long and surrounded by a layer of fat.
The other cells, neurons, act as the communicators of the nervous system. Neurons receive information, integrate it, and pass it along. They communicate with one another, with cells in the sensory organs, and with muscles and glands. Each neuron has the same structure:1  Each neuron has a soma, or cell body, which is the central area of the neuron.2  It contains the nucleus and other structures common to all cells in the body, such as mitochondria. Axons send information to other neurons, to muscle cells, or to gland cells. 2  What we call nerves are bundles of axons coming from many neurons. 3  Some of these axons have a coating called the myelin sheath. 4  Glial cells produce myelin, which is a fatty substance that protects the nerves.