Published online Nov 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i44.9752
Peer-review started: July 1, 2016
First decision: August 29, 2016
Revised: September 2, 2016
Accepted: October 10, 2016
Article in press: October 10, 2016
Published online: November 28, 2016
To investigate the possible involvement of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) in maturation of enteric glial cells (EGCs).
Immunohistochemical and immunocytochemical techniques were used to analyze EGC markers in myenteric plexus (MP) as well as cultured MP cells and EGCs using TRPV1 knockout (KO) mice.
We detected TRPV1-immunoreactive signals in EGC in the MP of wild-type (WT) but not KO mice. Expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunoreactive signals was lower at postnatal day (PD) 6 in KO mice, though the difference was not clear at PD 13 and PD 21. When MP cells were isolated and cultured from isolated longitudinal muscle-MP preparation from WT and KO mice, the yield of KO EGC was lower than that of WT EGC, while the yield of KO and WT smooth muscle cells showed no difference. Addition of BCTC, a TRPV1 antagonist, to enriched EGC culture resulted in a decrease in the protein ratio of GFAP to S100B, another EGC/astrocyte-specific marker.
These results address the possibility that TRPV1 may be involved in the maturation of EGC, though further studies are necessary to validate this possibility.
Core tip: We report that immunosignals of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in myenteric ganglia in transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) knockout (KO) mice are weaker than in wild-type mice in the early postnatal period, suggesting the possibility that the maturation of enteric glial cells (EGCs) might be retarded at least temporally in TRPV1 KO mice. Accordingly, in in vitro culture of isolated myenteric plexus cells/EGCs suggest that GFAP expression is affected by gene KO and an antagonist to TRPV1. The expression and function of TRPV1 in EGC merits further investigation.