Anti-c-kit protein immunoreactive cells corresponding to the interstitial cells of Cajal in the guinea-pig small intestine.
Interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) of the guinea-pig small intestine were studied with whole-mount preparations by using the zinc iodide-osmic acid method (ZIO) and immunohistochemistry for vimentin and c-kit receptor tyrosine kinase, and by electron microscopy. The myenteric ICC visualized with ZIO staining are immunopositive to both anti-c-kit antibody (ACK-2) and anti-vimentin antibody (V9), and constitute an independent cellular network from the myenteric plexus. Those cells are characterized by many mitochondria, abundant intermediate filaments, and surface cell membranes not covered with a basal lamina. They are connected with each other by gap junctions at tips of the cytoplasmic processes. It is concluded that the myenteric ICC of the guinea-pig intestine are fibroblast-like cells and that they correspond to the c-kit expressing cells regarded as the intestinal pacemaker.
Komuro
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Department of Basic Human Sciences, School of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Saitama, Japan. komuro@human.waseda.ac.jp
Zhou
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D000818:Animals; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D005260:Female; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007421:Intestine, Small / Q000166:cytology* / Q000294:innervation*; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009197:Myenteric Plexus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009993:Osmium Tetroxide; D019009:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit / Q000032:analysis / Q000276:immunology*; D014746:Vimentin / Q000032:analysis / Q000276:immunology; D015034:Zinc Oxide
D014746:Vimentin; D019009:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit; D009993:Osmium Tetroxide; D015034:Zinc Oxide