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Intestinal smooth muscle is required for patterning the enteric nervous system
Author(s) -
Graham Hannah K.,
Maina Ivy,
Goldstein Allan M.,
Nagy Nandor
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of anatomy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.932
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1469-7580
pISSN - 0021-8782
DOI - 10.1111/joa.12583
Subject(s) - enteric nervous system , neural crest , biology , hindgut , smooth muscle , microbiology and biotechnology , anatomy , nervous system , embryo , neuroscience , endocrinology , midgut , botany , larva
The development of the enteric nervous system ( ENS ) and intestinal smooth muscle occurs in a spatially and temporally correlated manner, but how they influence each other is unknown. In the developing mid‐gut of the chick embryo, we find that α‐smooth muscle actin expression, indicating early muscle differentiation, occurs after the arrival of migrating enteric neural crest‐derived cells ( ENCC s). In contrast, hindgut smooth muscle develops prior to ENCC arrival. Smooth muscle development is normal in experimentally aganglionic hindguts, suggesting that proper development and patterning of the muscle layers does not rely on the ENS . However, inhibiting early smooth muscle development severely disrupts ENS patterning without affecting ENCC proliferation or apoptosis. Our results demonstrate that early intestinal smooth muscle differentiation is required for patterning the developing ENS .