The first digestive movements in the embryo are mediated by mechanosensitive smooth muscle calcium waves.

ABSTRACT: Peristalsis enables transport of the food bolus in the gut. Here, I show by dynamic ex vivo intra-cellular calcium imaging on living embryonic gut explants that the most primitive form of peristalsis that occurs in the embryo is the result of inter-cellular, gap-junction-dependent calcium waves that propagate in the circular smooth muscle layer. I show that the embryonic gut is an intrinsically mechanosensitive organ, as the slightest externally applied mechanical stimulus triggers contractile waves. This dynamic response is an embryonic precursor of the 'law of the intestine' (peristaltic reflex). I show how characteristic features of early peristalsis such as counter-propagating wave annihilation, mechanosensitivity and nucleation after wounding all result from known properties of calciu

SUBMITTER: Chevalier NR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6158196 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature