Formation and malformation of the enteric nervous system in mice: An organ culture study

Transgenic rescue of aganglionosis and piebaldism in lethal spotted mice

“…D␤H promoter activity is detectable in these cells as they reach the foregut, but not earlier, and persists postnatally in enteric neurons (Kapur et al, 1992). Colonization of the gut proceeds in a cranial-to-caudal manner between E9.5 and E13.5 (Kapur et al, 1992;Nishijima et al, 1990;Webster, 1973). During the latter period, the D␤H promoter is active in enteric neural precursors, the ventral neural tube, and various peripheral ganglia.…”

“…Homozygotes exhibit piebaldism (unpigmented portions of the coat devoid of melanocytes) and intestinal aganglionosis (Lane, 1966). Aganglionosis results from incomplete colonization of the large intestine by neural crest-derived precursors (Kapur et al, 1992;Nishijima et al, 1990;Rothman and Gershon, 1984). Deletions of edn3 or ednrB result in phenotypes similar to ls/ls mice, but with more extensive piebaldism .…”

Embryological origin of interstitial cells of Cajal

“…As in chick embryos, the presence of ICC in the explants of embryonic mouse gut grown under the kidney capsule was independent of the presence of enteric neurons, and Kit-immunoreactive ICC were present in all explants, regardless of the developmental stage and region from which they were removed. In contrast, enteric neurons were only present in explants containing neural crest-derived cells at the time of removal (Kapur et al, 1992Nishijima et al, 1990. Since ICC develop in explants of embryonic chicken or mouse gut lacking neural crest-derived cells, it was concluded that ICC arise from the local mesenchyme.…”

Migration of neural crest-derived enteric nervous system precursor cells to and within the gastrointestinal tract

“…However, in contrast to the observations reporting the early arrival of sacral NCC within the gut (Pomeranz and Gershon, 1990;Pomeranz et al, 1991;Serbedzija, 1991), studies using gut explant cultures failed to identify an early migrating sacral NC-derived contribution to the ENS. When segments of hindgut were removed and cultured, prior to the arrival of vagal NCC, enteric neurons were not found to develop in the cultured explants (Allan and Newgreen, 1980, Kapur et al, 1992, Nishijima et al, 1990. Similarly, in midgut transection experiments, when the bowel was severed in ovo prior to the arrival of the rostrocaudally migrating vagal NCC (Meijers et al, 1989), the hindgut remained aganglionic, suggesting there was no contribution to the hindgut from the sacral crest.…”