Journal article
Imaging neuron-glia interactions in the enteric nervous system
W Boesmans, MA Martens, N Weltens, MM Hao, J Tack, C Cirillo, P Vanden Berghe
Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience | FRONTIERS MEDIA SA | Published : 2013
Open access
Abstract
The enteric nervous system (ENS) is a network of neurons and glia within the wall of the gastrointestinal tract that is able to control many aspects of digestive function independently from the central nervous system. Enteric glial cells share several features with astrocytes and are closely associated with enteric neurons and their processes both within enteric ganglia, and along interconnecting fiber bundles. Similar to other parts of the nervous system, there is communication between enteric neurons and glia; enteric glial cells can detect neuronal activity and have the machinery to intermediate neurotransmission. However, due to the close contact between these two cell types and the part..
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Awarded by BOF, University of Leuven
Awarded by FWO
Funding Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the members of LENS for their critical comments and skilled technical assistance. Werend Boesmans, Carla Cirillo, and Marlene M. Hao are postdoctoral fellows of the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO, Belgium). This work was funded by BOF, University of Leuven (Methusalem Jan Tack; OT ZKC1808, Pieter Vanden Berghe) and FWO (KN 1.5.135.06; G.0501.10, Pieter Vanden Berghe). We thank Vassilis Pachnis (National Institute for Medical Research, MRC, London, UK) for providing the Wnt1-Cre mice. Confocal recordings were made on the equipment of the Cell Imaging Core supported by Hercules foundation grants (to Pieter Vanden Berghe).