Histological Identification of the Interstitial Cells of Cajal in the Guinea-pig Small Intestine

Abstract

In order to clarify the contraversial structure that Cajal (1889, 1893, 1911) called “interstitial cells” in the intestine, we have compared the descriptions by Cajal with our recent findings. Cajal defined three groups of interstitial cells in the intestine: those in the mucosa, the deep muscular plexus, and the myenteric plexus. In the deep muscular plexus, he described cells with small perikarya and long, branching processes. Neither glial cells nor ZIO positive fibroblast-like cells, the only cell types seen in the numbers and location necessary to support Cajal's observations, conformed with the morphology he described. Cajal might have described a composite cell, or chimera, the cell b..