title: Enteric glia regulate gut motility in health and disease.
abstract: The enteric nervous system, often referred to as the second brain, is the largest assembly of neurons and glia outside the central nervous system. The enteric nervous system resides within the wall of the digestive tract and regulates local gut reflexes involved in gastrointestinal motility and fluid transport; these functions can be accomplished in the absence of the extrinsic innervation from the central nervous system. It is neurons and their circuitry within the enteric nervous system that govern the gut reflexes. However, it is becoming clear that enteric glial cells are also actively involved in this process through the bidirectional signaling with neurons and other cells in the gut wall. We synthesize the recently discovered modulatory roles of enteric gliotransmission in gut motility and provide our perspective for future lines of research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA; Neuroscience Program, Department of Physiology, Michigan State University, 567 Wilson Road, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Grubišić
authors.affiliation: The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK; Achucarro Center for Neuroscience, IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, 48011, Bilbao, Spain.
authors.forename: Alexei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Verkhratsky
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology-Molecular Cell Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Pathophysiology University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Celica BIOMEDICAL, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zorec
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA. Electronic address: vlad@uab.edu.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Parpura
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017615:Enteric Nervous System / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005769:Gastrointestinal Motility / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009457:Neuroglia / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Bidirectional purinergic signaling; Enteric glial cells; Enteric nervous system; Enteric neurons; Gliotransmission