We wish to understand how the organization and activity of individual neurons, within the two ganglionated plexuses that comprise the ENS, control the motile, secretory, and absorptive behaviors of the gut. Novel techniques are used to supplement electrophysiology in the study of enteric microcircuits.
Precursor cells are still multipotent when they arrive in the gut.
Their subsequent development is determined by the interaction that takes place between factors in the enteric microenvironment and intrinsic properties of different lineages of crest-derived cells. To do so, crest-derived cells are separated from other cells in the wall of the fetal gut by immunoselection. This work is accompanied by analyses of transgenic mice that lack or overexpress ligands or receptors under investigation. The Second Brain., Harper Collins, New York, N.Y., pp. Roles played by 5-hydroxytryptamine in the physiology of the bowel.