Mini-review: Enteric glial cell heterogeneity: Is it all about the niche?

Sanchini, G.; Vaes, Nathalie; Boesmans, Werend

doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2023.137396

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 47 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This dynamic capacity allows the ENS to adjust to variations in gut size, functionality, and to a range of environmental factors, including dietary shifts, inflammatory states, and injury. Neurons may modify their transcriptional profiles and change their neurotransmitter or receptor expression in response to environmental stimuli, similar to the transient and adaptive responses observed in enteric glia 23,24 . Consequently, the assumption that functionally distinct neurons equate to permanent cell states, or lineages may be overly simplistic and may not account for the nuanced nature of neuronal identity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

A call for a unified and multimodal definition of cellular identity in the enteric nervous system

Majd,

Cesiulis,

Samuel

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The enteric nervous system (ENS) is a tantalizing frontier in neuroscience. With the recent emergence of single cell transcriptomic technologies, this rare and poorly understood tissue has begun to be better characterized in recent years. A precise functional mapping of enteric neuron diversity is critical for understanding ENS biology and enteric neuropathies. Nonetheless, this pursuit has faced considerable technical challenges. By leveraging different methods to compare available primary mouse and human ENS datasets, we underscore the urgent need for careful identity annotation, achieved through the harmonization and advancements of wet lab and computational techniques. We took different approaches including differential gene expression, module scoring, co-expression and correlation analysis, unbiased biological function hierarchical clustering, data integration and label transfer to compare and contrast functional annotations of several independently reported ENS datasets. These analyses highlight substantial discrepancies stemming from an overreliance on transcriptomics data without adequate validation in tissues. To achieve a comprehensive understanding of enteric neuron identity and their functional context, it is imperative to expand tissue sources and incorporate innovative technologies such as multiplexed imaging, electrophysiology, spatial transcriptomics, as well as comprehensive profiling of epigenome, proteome, and metabolome. Harnessing human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) models provides unique opportunities for delineating lineage trees of the human ENS, and offers unparalleled advantages, including their scalability and compatibility with genetic manipulation and unbiased screens. We encourage a paradigm shift in our comprehension of cellular complexity and function in the ENS by calling for large-scale collaborative efforts and research investments.

show abstract