NADPH-diaphorase-containing enteric neurones survive for a year in the adult rat striatum.

In previous studies, we have demonstrated that enteric ganglia can survive when transplanted into the striatum. However, if such grafts are to be effective in clinically significant situations, it is necessary for them to survive in the brain for long periods. In this study, we have examined the corpus striatum of host rats one year after transplantation of pieces of myenteric plexus taken from young Fischer rats. NADPH-diaphorase-containing enteric neurones had survived within the CNS environment one year after grafting, and had extended axons into the surrounding striatum.