introduction: constipation is one of the most common complaints of individuals, which may present with complication like hemorrhoid and fissure. hirschsprung is a disease presenting with chronic constipation and its diagnosis may be delayed until adulthood. it is diagnosed by biopsies from anorectal transitional zone. this study aimed to evaluate the association between hirschsprung and anorect...

Hirschsprung's disease, also known as congenital aganglionic megacolon, is a congenital disorder which develops due to an absence of neural ganglia in a segment of large bowel. Most commonly, the rectum or rectosigmoid, and rarely other areas or the entire colon are involved. In this disease, all three neural plexi, i.e., the myenteric (Auerbach's) plexus, the superficial submucosal (Meiss...

Megacolon must be considered as a diagnosis in any case of intractable constipation also in the adult. Besides the Hirschsprung's disease and the idiopathic megacolon, which have no apparent organic cause, many other pathologic conditions may produce a marked dilatation of the large bowel. The differential diagnosis depends, after a valuation of the clinical and radiologic features, also from e...

The enteric nervous system (ENS) derives from neural crest, which invade and migrate along the developing gut, proliferate extensively, and differentiate into neurons and glial cells organized as interconnected ganglia that control complex behaviours of the gut, such as peristalsis. While most ENS progenitors undergo differentiation, cells exhibiting properties of enteric progenitor cells (EPCs...

The gastrointestinal tract develops from the embryonic gut, which is composed of an endodermally derived epithelium surrounded by cells of mesodermal origin. Cell signaling between these two tissue layers appears to play a critical role in coordinating patterning and organogenesis of the gut and its derivatives. We have assessed the function of Sonic hedgehog and Indian hedgehog genes, which en...

The enteric nervous system (ENS) derives from neural crest, which invade and migrate along the developing gut, proliferate extensively, and differentiate into neurons and glial cells organized as interconnected ganglia that control complex behaviours of the gut, such as peristalsis. While most ENS progenitors undergo differentiation, cells exhibiting properties of enteric progenitor cells (EPCs...

BACKGROUND Hirschsprung disease is a complex genetic disorder of the enteric nervous system (ENS), often called congenital aganglionic megacolon and characterized by the absence of enteric neurons along a variable length of the intestine. The definitive diagnosis of Hirschsprung disease relies on histologic and/or histochemical staining of sections from suction rectal biopsies. Calretinin immun...