The existence of a pacemaker system in the urinary tract capable of orchestrating the movement of filtrated urine from the ureteral pelvis to the distal ureter and lower urinary tract seems intuitive. The coordinated activity necessary for such movement or "peristalsis" would likely require an intricate network of cells with pacemaker-like activity, as is the case with the interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) of the gut. We investigated whether these putative pacemaker cells of the urinary tract are antigenically similar to ICC of the gut by using immunofluorescence staining for c-kit, a cell-surface marker specific for ICC. Ureteral, urinary bladder, and urethral tissues were harvested from female mice of the WBB6F1 strain, and fixed sections were prepared and stained for c-kit. Cell networks composed of stellate-appearing, c-kit-positive, ICC-like cells were found in the lamina propria and at the interface of the inner longitudinal and outer circular muscle layers of the ureteral pelvis but not in the urinary bladder or urethra. Thus, like in the gut, c-kit-positive, ICC-like cells are present in the urinary tract but appear to be restricted to the proximal ureter of this murine species.

The Tucumcari Basin of east-central New Mexico is an asymmetric structural depression that existed as a depositional basin from Strawn (Middle Pennsylvanian) until late Wolfcampian (Early Permian) time. Depth to Precambrian ranges from 6,500 ft in the southern part of the basin to more than 9,000 ft in the northern part of the basin. High-angle faults form the northern, western, and eastern margins of the basin. Faults cut Pennsylvanian and Wolfcampian strata but do not generally offset post-Wolfcampian strata. To the north and west, the basin is bounded by the Sierra Grande and Pedernal Uplifts. To the east, the Frio Uplift separates the Tucumcari Basin from the Palo Duro Basin of the Texas panhandle. No major structural discontinuities separate the basin from a shallow shelf to the south.Correlations between fusulinid biostratigraphic data, geophysical logs, cores, and drill cuttings indicate the facies and thickness patterns of Pennsylvanian and Wolfcampian strata are structurally controlled. Coarse-grained arkosic sandstones that were deposited in the northern and western parts of the basin were derived from the highlands of Precambrian granitic rocks that formed the northern and western margins of the basin. These sandstones are good reservoirs and exhibit both primary and secondary porosities. High-energy limestones of Pennsylvanian through Wolfcampian age were deposited in the southern part of the basin and are possible reservoirs. Dissolution porosity may have developed in the limestones that are truncated by a basin-wide unconformity at the top of the Pennsylvanian. Porous dolostones of Wolfcampian age cover the Frio Uplift on the eastern side of the basin and are good reservoirs.Thermally mature oil-and-gas source rocks are Pennsylvanian and Wolfcampian marine shales that were deposited throughout the Tucumcari Basin. Post-Wolfcampian strata are thermally immature.Two presently noncommercial to marginally commercial pools of oil and gas, the Latigo Ranch and the T-4 Cattle Company pools, have been discovered in Strawn sandstones in the northern part of the basin. Oil generated in upper Paleozoic strata has migrated vertically through faults into Triassic strata; two accumulations of heavy oil, the Santa Rosa tar sands and the Newkirk oil pool, are in Triassic sandstones and have combined reserves of 153 million bbls of oil.

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