Christensen J
Am J Physiol. 1984 Mar;246(3 Pt 1):G221-5. doi: 10.1152/ajpgi.1984.246.3.G221.
The sensory innervation of the esophagus is important both to physicians, for whom esophageal sensation can cause clinical confusion, and to physiologists, who wish to understand the regulation of esophageal motion. Sensory mechanisms in the gut in general are not well understood. Mechanoreceptive reflexes and their pathways, both parasympathetic and sympathetic, have been studied in the esophagus, and thermoreceptive reflex pathways that are parasympathetic have recently been described. The terminal sensory innervation of the esophagus contains several structures that may be receptors to such stimuli. Esophageal striated muscle contains muscle spindles like those of somatic muscle. Within the myenteric plexus, the bodies of certain ganglion cells themselves may be mechanoreceptive. Also, complex subcapsular laminar arborizations that arise from cells of the nodose ganglion have been described in ganglia of the esophageal myenteric plexus. Similar laminar arborizations have been found on vessels of the submucosa in the midesophagus. In the esophageal mucosa, the terminal innervation ends in structures of diverse form located both superficially and deep in the squamous epithelium. Thus, a variety of specific neural structures that seem to represent the terminals of sensory nerves exist in the esophagus and may serve the mechanoreceptive and thermoreceptive reflexes that modify esophageal motility.
食管的感觉神经支配对医生和生理学家都很重要。对医生来说，食管感觉会导致临床困惑；对生理学家来说，他们希望了解食管运动的调节机制。一般来说，肠道的感觉机制尚未得到充分了解。在食管中，已经研究了机械感受性反射及其副交感神经和交感神经通路，最近还描述了副交感神经的温度感受性反射通路。食管的终末感觉神经支配包含几种可能是此类刺激感受器的结构。食管横纹肌含有与躯体肌肉类似的肌梭。在肌间神经丛内，某些神经节细胞本身的胞体可能具有机械感受性。此外，在食管肌间神经丛的神经节中，已经描述了来自结状神经节细胞的复杂的被膜下分层分支。在食管中部的黏膜下层血管上也发现了类似的分层分支。在食管黏膜中，终末神经支配终止于鳞状上皮浅层和深层的各种不同形态的结构。因此，食管中存在多种似乎代表感觉神经终末的特定神经结构，它们可能参与调节食管运动的机械感受性和温度感受性反射。
