Visualization of interstitial cells of Cajal in living, intact tissues.

Interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) appear to be a major element in pacing and signal transmission in the gastrointestinal tract. A prominent problem in the study of ICC has been the difficulty in observing them in intact tissues. We used several methods to visualize living ICC in freshly-dissected tissues: (1) Placing small crystals of the lipophilic dye DiI in the submucosal-circular muscle border in the mouse colon resulted in the labeling of living ICC-like cells. Two main morphological cell types, bipolar and multipolar, were noted. The DiI stain could be converted into a stable, electron-opaque product. Electron-microscopic observations showed that the labeled cells had the typical appearance of ICC reported in previous studies. (2) Living ICC in the region of the myenteric plexus (ICC-MP) in the small intestines of mice and guinea-pigs were observed with Nomarski optics. This enabled the visualization of ICC in living tissues, and the impalement of the cells with Lucifer yellow-filled microelectrodes. The dye-labeled cells had the morphological features of ICC-MP, and about 30% of them were found to be dye coupled to 1-21 other ICC. The identity of the cells as ICC was verified by electron-microscopy following photoconversion, and by c-kit immunohistochemistry. (3) Living ICC were labeled with a c-kit antibody that does not require tissue fixation. This resulted in the fluorescent staining of the entire ICC network. Single cells were labeled by dye injection, which provided a detailed picture of ICC morphology. This method was found to be suitable for a wide range of tissues. We expect that these three methods for identifying ICC in intact, living tissues will be useful for physiological and pharmacological investigations of ICC in a variety of gastrointestinal tissues.

Coupling among interstitial cells of Cajal in the human ileum.

Current knowledge on the morphology and physiology of interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) is mostly based on animal studies, and information about the function of these cells in humans is scarce. There is ultrastructural evidence that ICC in the myenteric region (ICC-MP) of the small intestine of several species are connected by gap junctions, but these were not observed in the human small intestine. The aim of the present study was to determine whether functional coupling also exists among ICC-MP in the human ileum. We visualized ICC-MP in live tissues using Nomarski optics, and verified their identity by staining for c-Kit. ICC were injected intracellularly with the fluorescent dye Lucifer yellow, which crosses gap junctions. In most cases the labelled cells had oval somata with two primary processes. At normal pH (7.3-7.4) only 20.2% (21/104) of the injected ICC were coupled to other ICC. However, at pH 7.8-7.9 coupling incidence increased to 74.5% (35/47, P < 0.0001). The injected cells were coupled to one to 35 other ICC. Octanol blocked coupling in all cases. Apparently, gap junctions interconnect ICC in the human small intestine. Coupling was enhanced by a small increase in pH, suggesting that it may be under physiological control.

Physiological study of interstitial cells of Cajal identified by vital staining.

Interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) form networks that intercalate between the enteric nervous system and smooth muscle cells and play a fundamental role in the control of gastrointestinal motility by initiating rhythmic electrical activity. In this report, we used a method to examine the physiological and morphological properties of ICC in living, intact tissues. ACK2, an anti-Kit antibody, was conjugated to a fluorescent probe and used to identify individual ICC for intracellular electrical recordings, to record changes in intracellular calcium concentration using fluorescent dyes and for confocal microscopy. Cyclic changes in intracellular calcium concentration were recorded in ICC with a frequency similar to the electrical slow wave. In addition, injection of a fluorescent dye into single ICC enabled the three-dimensional reconstruction of single myenteric plexus ICC within the intact network. The data show that ICC in intact networks from the myenteric plexus region in living tissues in the guinea-pig antrum exhibit an electrical slow wave, and that intracellular calcium oscillates at a frequency similar to the slow wave.

Ex vivo endothelin dependent contraction of the remodeled rat spiral artery.

INTRODUCTION: Similarities of the rat to the human placenta make rat pregnancy models relevant to the study of human gestational diseases. Understanding of species differences is necessary to extrapolate from animal models to humans. We observed alpha-smooth muscle actin (αSMA) expression in rat endovascular trophoblasts (EVasT) and investigated the spatial and temporal expression of smooth muscle (SM) proteins and their potential function in remodeled spiral artery. METHODS: Rat placentas were examined from gestational day 13 to term, and were immunostained for cytokeratin, αSMA, alpha heavy chain of SM myosin, non-muscle myosin, Rho proteins, regulators of SM gene expression, myocardin, an early marker of SM differentiation and endothelin receptors A and B (ETA, ETB). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was performed. Modified spiral artery rings were studied ex vivo for endothelin-1- induced contraction. RESULTS: EVasT expressed SM proteins co-localizing with cytokeratin confirming their trophoblastic origin from gestational day 13 to term. Thin fibers, consistent with actin fibers, were observed by TEM, in the cellular localization of αSMA in EVasT. Functional experiments revealed that addition of 10(-7) M endothelin-1 ex vivo reduced vascular lumen area by 11.1% ± 1.8% compared with control. This effect was reduced to only 1.0 ± 1.7% with ETA antagonist, and to 5.4 ± 1.7% contraction by ETB antagonist, p < 0.002, for all. DISCUSSION: The expression of SM proteins in EVasT along with the contractibility of the rat remodeled spiral artery ex vivo, suggest that some vascular tone is potentially maintained by endothelin-1, and may play a role in situations of dysregulation of the vasoactive systems.

Intercellular coupling among interstitial cells of Cajal in the guinea pig small intestine.

A major difficulty in the investigation of interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) is in identifying these cells within intact, living gastrointestinal tissues. To overcome this difficulty we developed a method to visualize ICC in the myenteric plexus region (ICC-MP) of the guinea pig ileum. Cells were identified with Nomarski optics and were injected with the fluorescent dye Lucifer yellow. The identity of the cells as ICC was verified by immunohistochemical labeling for the protein c-Kit. Using the dye coupling method we found that 24.4% (93/381) of ICC-MP were coupled to 1-21 other ICC. Octanol reduced dye coupling incidence among ICC-MP to 2% (1/49). Raising the pH in the medium to 7.8-7.9 increased the dye-coupling incidence to 86% (37/43, P<0.001). Lowering the pH to 6.4-6.8 had the opposite effect (coupling incidence 1/44). These findings demonstrate that ICC are mutually connected by channels, apparently gap junctions, that can allow the passage of both electrical currents and small molecules. As it was modulated by pH, it is likely that ICC coupling is under physiological control.