The enteric nervous system (ENS) is essential for normal motility and many other physiologic properties of the gastrointestinal tract.1 It is composed of intrinsic neurons, the cell bodies and most processes of which are located inside the bowel wall, and extrinsic nerve fibers that project into the gut from autonomic and sensory ganglia. Although extrinsic innervation modulates the activity of...

Hirschsprung's disease, a congenital condition resulting in functional intestinal obstruction, was seen in 21 children at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) between January 1996 and December 1998. Late presentation of patients to hospital was observed and was attributed to ignorance and poverty. Patients presented only when repeated herbal enemas no longer offered relief. The ma...

Since 1948, a total of 89 patients with an aganglionic megacolon have been treated at the Children's Hospital of the Helsinki University Clinic. There were 68 cases of Hirschsprung's disease, and in 21 cases the anomaly had developed with anal atresia. In nine cases Hirschsprung's disease caused death in early infancy. Operations were performed in 59 cases. Three different types of operation we...

The enteric nervous system (ENS) is composed of neural crest-derived neurons (also known as ganglion cells) the cell bodies of which are located in the submucosal and myenteric plexuses of the intestinal wall. Intramucosal ganglion cells are known to exist but are rare and often considered ectopic. Also derived from the neural crest are enteric glial cells that populate the ganglia and the asso...

Hirschsprung's disease (aganglionic megacolon, HSCR) is a frequent condition of unknown origin (1/5000 live births) resulting in intestinal obstruction in neonates and severe constipation in infants and adults. In the majority of cases (80%), the aganglionic tract involves the rectum and the sigmoid colon only (short segment HSCR), while in 20% of cases it extends toward the proximal end of the...

Hirschsprung disease (HSCR), or colonic aganglionosis, is a congenital disorder characterized by the absence of intramural ganglia along variable lengths of the colon, resulting in intestinal obstruction. It is the most common cause of congenital intestinal obstruction, with an incidence of 1 in 5,000 live births. N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU)-induced mutagenesis is a powerful tool for the study ...

OBJECTIVES Enteric neuropathies are severe gastrointestinal disorders with unsatisfactory outcomes. We aimed to investigate the potential of enteric neural stem cell therapy approaches for such disorders by transplanting mouse enteric neural crest cells (ENCCs) into ganglionic and aganglionic mouse gut in vivo and analysing functional integration and long-term safety. DESIGN Neurospheres gene...

The classic piebald mutation in the endothelin receptor type B (Ednrb) gene was found on rolling Nagoya genetic background (PROD-s/s) mice with white coat spotting. To examine whether genetic background influenced the phenotype in the piebald mutant mice, we generated a congenic strain (B6.PROD-s/s), produced by repeated backcrosses to the C57BL/6J (B6) strain. Although B6.PROD-s/s mice showed ...

Recently HUKUHARA, KOTANI and SATO7) found that morphine always exerted an excitatory action on the motility of dog jejunal Thiry-loop, literature concerned being reviewed there. They drew a conclusion that morphine acted as an excitant to the intestinal muscle itself, since it could raise the intestinal motility after atropine as well as hexamethonium had been administered and on the other han...