Supporting Evidence of Human Enteric Nervous System Adult Neurogenesis: Presence of Primary Cilia and Adult Neurogenesis Markers

Adult neurogenesis has been profusely studied in central nervous system. However, its presence in enteric nervous system remains elusive although it has been recently demonstrated in mice and intimately linked to glial cells. Moreover, primary cilium is an important organelle in central adult neurogenesis. In the present study, we analysed some parallelisms between central and enteric nervous system (ENS) in humans based on ultrastructural and immunohistochemical techniques. Thus, we described the presence of primary cilia in some subtypes of glial cells and Interstitial Cells of Cajal (ICCs) and we performed 3-D reconstructions to better characterise their features. Besides, we studied the expression of several adult neurogenesis-related proteins. Immature neuron markers were found in human ENS, supporting the existence of adult neurogenesis. However, only ICCs showed proliferation markers. Hence, we propose a new paradigm where ICCs would constitute the original neural stem cells which, through asymmetrical cell division, would generate the new-born neurons.