Ward S M, Sanders K M
Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, University of Nevada School of Medicine, Reno, Nevada 89557, USA.
Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2001 Sep;281(3):G602-11. doi: 10.1152/ajpgi.2001.281.3.G602.
Interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) are the pacemaker cells in gastrointestinal (GI) muscles. They also mediate or transduce inputs from enteric motor nerves to the smooth muscle syncytium. What is known about functional roles of ICC comes from developmental studies based on the discovery that ICC express c-kit. Functional development of ICC networks depends on signaling via the Kit receptor pathway. Immunohistochemical studies using Kit antibodies have expanded our knowledge about the ICC phenotype, the structure of ICC networks, the interactions of ICC with other cells within the tunica muscularis, and the loss of ICC in some motility disorders. Manipulating Kit signaling with reagents to block the receptor or downstream signaling pathways or by using mutant mice in which Kit or its ligand, stem cell factor, are defective has allowed novel studies of the development of these cells within the tunica muscularis and also allowed the study of specific functions of different classes of ICC in several regions of the GI tract. This article examines the role of ICC in GI motility, focusing on the functional development and maintenance of ICC networks in the GI tract and the phenotypic changes that can occur when the Kit signaling pathway is disrupted.
Cajal间质细胞（ICC）是胃肠道（GI）肌肉中的起搏细胞。它们还介导或转导来自肠运动神经的输入至平滑肌合胞体。关于ICC功能作用的了解来自基于ICC表达c-kit这一发现的发育研究。ICC网络的功能发育依赖于通过Kit受体途径的信号传导。使用Kit抗体的免疫组织化学研究扩展了我们对ICC表型、ICC网络结构、ICC与肌层内其他细胞的相互作用以及ICC在某些运动障碍中的缺失的认识。用试剂阻断受体或下游信号通路来操纵Kit信号传导，或使用Kit或其配体干细胞因子有缺陷的突变小鼠，使得对这些肌层内细胞的发育进行新的研究成为可能，也使得对胃肠道几个区域不同类型ICC的特定功能进行研究成为可能。本文探讨ICC在胃肠运动中的作用，重点关注胃肠道中ICC网络的功能发育和维持以及Kit信号通路中断时可能发生的表型变化。
