A myogenic motor pattern in mice lacking myenteric interstitial cells of Cajal explained by a second coupled oscillator network.

A myogenic motor pattern in mice lacking myenteric interstitial cells of Cajal explained by a second coupled oscillator network. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2019 Dec 09;: Authors: Parsons SP, Huizinga JD Abstract The interstitial cells of Cajal associated with the myenteric plexus (ICC-MP) are a network of coupled oscillators in the small intestine that generate rhythmic electrical phase waves leading to corresponding waves of contraction. Yet rhythmic action potentials and intercellular calcium waves have been recorded from c-kit mutant mice that lack the ICC-MP, suggesting that there may be a second pacemaker network. The gap junction blocker carbenoxolone induced a "pinstripe" motor pattern consisting of rhythmic "stripes" of contraction that appeared simultaneously across the intestine with a period of ~ 4 s. The infinite velocity of these stripes suggested they were generated by a coupled oscillator network, which we call X. In c-kit mutants rhythmic contraction waves with the period of X travelled the length of the intestine, prior to the induction of the pinstripe pattern by carbenoxolone. Thus X is not the ICC-MP and appears to operate under physiological conditions, a fact that could explain the viability of these mice. Individual stripes consisted of a complex pattern of bands of contraction and distention and between stripes there could be slide- and v-waves of contraction. We hypothesised that these phenomena...
Source: American Journal of Physiology. Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology - Category: Physiology Authors: Tags: Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol Source Type: research