Objective  To investigate the effects of neuroligin-1, -2 (NLGN-1,-2) on oligodendrocyte(OLs) differentiation and myelination in the central nervous system.   Methods  OLs were cultured in vitro in the presence of different concentrations of NLGN-1 and NLGN-2. Morphological differentiation of OLs was observed by immunofluorescent staining and mRNA expression levels of myelin-associated genes were detected by Real-time PCR. Western blotting was used to detect the expression of myelin-related proteins. Results  NLGN-1, -2 accelerated the differentiation of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) into mature OLs, and promoted the ability of myelin sheath formation. In vitro culture conditions, the dosage of 500 μg/L had the best promotion effect on OLs differentiation and maturation, and NLGN-2 had better promoting effect than that of NLGN-1. Furthermore, the mRNA expression levels of myelin-associated genes myelin protein P0(MPZ), myelin basic protein(MBP) increased after the neuroligins treatments detected by  Real-time PCR. Western blotting result  showed that the expressions of MBP and MPZ increased significantly after 500 μg/L treatment with NLGN-1 and NLGN-2 for 12 hours. Conclusion  NLGN-1, -2 promote OLs differentiation and myelination. The positive effect of NLGN-2 is greater than that of NLGN-1 significantly, suggesting that the treatment with inhibitory synaptic-associated cytokines may improve the ability of myelin sheath formation in the central nervous system.