Interstitial Cells of Cajal: Intestinal Pacemaker Cells?

by Lars Thuneberg

Overview

In 1949, the Dutch anatomist Jan Boeke was able to write: "The socalled interstitial cells . . . which lie at the end of the sympathetic endformation as a connecting link between the nervous endformation and the effector cells, are . . . shown to be of pri- mary importance for the transferring and the remoulding of the nervous stimulus . . . . " And: " . . . the problem of the interstitial cells and of the synapse is the most impor- tant problem of neurohistology of the future. " When Boeke wrote this, he advocated the generalized concept, holding that inter- stitial cells were intercalated between autonomic nerves and effector cells. A frank illus- tration of this is presented by Tinel (l937), who places interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) as terminal neurons of all autonomic nerves (his Fig. 1). While there have been over 100 light microscopic investigations (Table 1) of ICC in tissues and organs other than intestine, none of these have been followed up by electron microscopic studies. It is important to bear in mind that when the term ICC is used today, the only reference tissue for which sufficient information (i. e., including an ultrastructural identification) on the ICC is at hand is the intestine, or rather the muscularis externa of small inte- stine (in Table 1, those contributions which relate to intestinal ICC are underlined).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783540112617
Publisher:	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publication date:	05/04/1982
Series:	Advances in Anatomy, Embryology and Cell Biology , #71
Edition description:	1982
Pages:	132
Product dimensions:	6.69(w) x 9.61(h) x 0.01(d)

Table of Contents

1 Introduction.- 1.1 Survey of Literature on ICC.- 1.2 Contraction “Waves” and Nodes of Smooth Muscle.- 2 Material and Methods.- 3 Results.- 3.1 Survey of the Organization of the Serosa and Muscularis Externa.- 3.2 Interstitial Cells Associated with Auerbach’s Plexus.- 3.3 Interstitial Cells of the Subserous Compartment and Within the Longitudinal Muscle Layer.- 3.4 Interstitial Cells Associated with Plexus Muscularis Profundus (Cajal).- 3.5 Interstitial Cells Within the Outer, Main Layer of Circular Muscle.- 3.6 Contraction Patterns of Muscularis Externa.- 3.7 Mechanisms of the Supravital Methylene Blue Staining Technique: Results and Discussion.- 4 Discussion.- 4.1 General Organization of Muscularis Externa.- 4.2 Topographical Relations of ICC (-I and -II) to Cells of the Longitudinal Muscle Layer.- 4.3 Topographical Relations of ICC (-I, -III, and -IV) to Cells of the Circular Muscle Layer.- 4.4 Nature of ICC.- 4.5 Contraction “Waves” and Nodes: Relations to Auerbach’s Plexus and Associated ICC.- 4.6 Functions of ICC (and MLC).- 4.7 Conclusion.- 4.8 Perspective.- 5 Summary.- References.