The enteric nervous system (ENS), the intrinsic innervation of the gastrointestinal tract, is an essential component of the gut neuromusculature and controls many aspects of gut function, including coordinated muscular peristalsis. The ENS is entirely derived from neural crest cells (NCC) which undergo a number of key processes, including extensive migration into and along the gut, proliferatio...

Loss of Endothelin-3/Endothelin receptor B (EDNRB) signaling leads to aganglionosis of the distal gut (Hirschsprung's disease), but it is unclear whether it is required primarily for neural crest progenitor maintenance or migration. Ednrb-deficient gut neural crest stem cells (NCSCs) were reduced to 40% of wild-type levels by embryonic day 12.5 (E12.5), but no further depletion of NCSCs was sub...

BACKGROUND Modern approach to the surgical treatment of Hirschsprung's disease (HD) consists in earliest possible repair and reduction number interventions. Primary one-stage transanal endorectal pull-through (TEPT) technique requires preoperative determination length aganglionic segment. The efficacy standard method - contrast enema is questionable patients with a poorly defined transitional z...

The dopamine beta-hydroxylase promoter has been shown to direct expression of the reporter gene product, beta-galactosidase, to enteric neurons and putative embryonic neuroblasts in transgenic mice (Mercer et al., 1991; Kapur et al., 1991). In this paper, expression of the transgene, D beta H-nlacZ, in the gastrointestinal tract is characterized in more detail in wild-type mice and mice which a...

Figure 1. Neuronal-glia ineractions during intestinal inflammation and neural stem cell transfer. ATP, adenosine triphosphate; NO, nitric oxide; P2X7R, purinergic receptor P2X, ligand gated ion channel, 7. Cneurons in the human body. For more than a century, physicians and scientists have argued that glia provide the fundamental infrastructure and life support to neurons, without which the brai...

Embryological studies on the mouse indicate that, contrary to the classical concept, all the enteric ganglia are from a single, vagal, neural crest source. The immature ganglion cells first enter the gut by way of the newly formed vagal outgrowth at 10 days gestation. The neuroblasts then migrate down the gut in a cranio-caudal direction, being replaced by more neuroblasts from the vagus. By 15...