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NEUROREGULATION AND MOTILITY
1Enteric Neuroscience Program, Miles and Shirley Fiterman Center for Digestive Diseases and Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic; 2Department of Physiology, Nursing School, University of Extremadura and RETICEF, Caceres, Spain; 3Department of Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota; 4Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine; and 5Department of Pathology, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, California
Submitted 26 February 2009 ; accepted in final form 9 April 2009
Populations of interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) are altered in several gastrointestinal neuromuscular disorders. ICC are identified typically by ultrastructure and expression of Kit (CD117), a protein that is also expressed on mast cells. No other molecular marker currently exists to independently identify ICC. The expression of ANO1 (DOG1, TMEM16A), a Ca2+-activated Cl– channel, in gastrointestinal stromal tumors suggests it may be useful as an ICC marker. The aims of this study were therefore to determine the distribution of Ano1 immunoreactivity compared with Kit and to establish whether Ano1 is a reliable marker for human and mouse ICC. Expression of Ano1 in human and mouse stomach, small intestine, and colon was investigated by immunofluorescence labeling using antibodies to Ano1 alone and in combination with antibodies to Kit. Colocalization of immunoreactivity was demonstrated by epifluorescence and confocal microscopy. In the muscularis propria, Ano1 immunoreactivity was restricted to cells with the morphology and distribution of ICC. All Ano1-positive cells in the muscularis propria were also Kit positive. Kit-expressing mast cells were not Ano1 positive. Some non-ICC in the mucosa and submucosa of human tissues were Ano1 positive but Kit negative. A few (3.2%) Ano1-positive cells in the human gastric muscularis propria were labeled weakly for Kit. Ano1 labels all classes of ICC and represents a highly specific marker for studying the distribution of ICC in mouse and human tissues with an advantage over Kit since it does not label mast cells.
Kit; mast cells; chloride channels; gastrointestinal motility; immunofluorescence
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