par Avci, Recep;Du, Peng;Vanderwinden, Jean-Marie ;Cheng, Leo L.K.
Référence Conference proceedings
Publication Publié, 2024-12-01
Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : Rhythmic bioelectrical activity known as slow waves is in part responsible for coordinating the contractions in the stomach, which play a crucial role in maintaining healthy digestion. Slow waves are generated by specialized pacemaker cells named interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) distributed within smooth muscle cells of the stomach wall. In this study, tissue samples were collected from four regions (cardia, fundus, corpus, and antrum) of the stomach of a transgenic mouse that expressed green fluorescent protein in the ICC. Detailed ICC structures were imaged using multiphoton confocal microscopy and the ICC network was segmented using a supervised machine learning model. The regional network characteristics of the ICC were quantified and compared using structural metrics. The microscopic images revealed that the cardia and fundus lacked the dense layer of ICC situated within the myenteric plexus (ICC-MP). On the other hand, the ICC layer that runs along the longitudinal muscle layer (ICC-LM) was mainly observed in the cardia and fundus. The ICC cells that run parallel with the circular muscle fibers (ICC-CM) were present in the four imaged regions. The structural metrics showed that the ICC density increased from the cardia (2.6±2.0%) to the antrum (12.8±2.7%). Similarly, the ICC process thickness distally increased from 4.2±0.8 μm to 7.5±0.5 μm. The other structural metrics also showed variations between the different regions of the stomach. The characterization of the regional characteristics of the ICC network contributes to our understanding of the structure-function relationship in the gastric motility and can help to identify the roles that different ICC types play in gastric motility in health and disease.

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