Chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction in infants and children caused by diverse abnormalities of the myenteric plexus

Interstitial cells of Cajal in human gut and gastrointestinal disease

“…Pathological features of CIPO are pleiomorphic. A number of alterations of the enteric nervous system (''neuropathic'' forms) (Krishnamurthy et al, 1993) and ''myopathic'' forms, limited to the musculature of the GI tract or involving also the musculature of the urinary system (Anuras et al, 1986;Smith and Milla, 1997), have been described but did not yield much insight on the pathogenesis. In addition, in some cases, no pathological abnormality could be detected.…”

Counting myenteric ganglion cells in histologic sections: an empirical approach

“…Some studies suggest that failure to resect the TZ along with the aganglionic segment may account for the postoperative obstructive symptoms observed in many HD patients [10,12,13], but conflicting data exist [14]. Isolated hypoganglionosis (independent from HD) is also a putative cause of pseudoobstruction [15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

An age-dependent proliferation is involved in the postnatal development of interstitial cells of Cajal in the small intestine of mice

“…ICC-DMP, another subtype of ICC in the small bowel, which are closely associated with nerve Wbers (Ward et al 2006;Zhou and Komuro 1992), and appear soon after birth . However, the postnatal development of ICCs, from neonatal to adult life, is poorly investigated, although the small intestine keeps lengthening and extending throughout this period, in spite of the fact that developmental disorders related to ICCs have been shown to be involved in a number of dysfunctions of the gastrointestinal tract in newborns and infants, such as intestinal pseudoobstruction (Krishnamurthy et al 1993), Hirschsprung's disease (Vanderwinden et al 1996b) and infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (Vanderwinden et al 1996a).…”