Tew, Elizabeth Margaret Mary; (1994) Transplantation of enteric ganglia and intestinal smooth muscle into the adult rat brain. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis examines both the survival of grafts of myenteric plexus and intestinal smooth muscle implanted in the adult rat striatum and the interaction between the graft and the surrounding striatum. Pieces of adult rat ileal muscularis externa (myenteric plexus sandwiched between smooth muscle layers) were implanted into the corpus striatum and examined by electron microscopy. Enteric neurons and glial cells survived for at least 6 weeks and remained morphologically similar to those seen in situ. Bundles of small unmyelinated axons, interpreted as CNS axonal sprouts, were seen in the striatum surrounding the grafts. Some passed between the brain and the grafts. Grafts of freeze-killed muscularis externa produced little axonal sprouting in the striatum and were not invaded by axons. Similar live grafts were examined immunohistochemically using an antibody against tyrosine-hydroxylase (TH). Grafts were invaded by TH-containing fibres of CNS origin. Pieces of freshly dissected myenteric plexus from young donors were implanted in quinolinic acid-lesioned and unlesioned adult rat striatum. Some grafts were histochemically stained for NADPH-diaphorase, three and six weeks after implantation. NADPH-diaphorase-containing enteric neurons were identified within the grafts and extended long processes into the surrounding lesioned or unlesioned striata. The remaining grafts were examined electron microscopically three and six weeks after implantation and were found to contain healthy-looking enteric neurons and glia. Dissected enteric ganglia also appeared to stimulate a sprouting response in both the lesioned and unlesioned striatum adjacent to the grafts. Once again, grafts were invaded by oligodendrocyte-myelinated and non-myelinated CNS axons. As part of the investigation of the mechanisms involved in the sprouting response of the striatum, freshly dissected colonic smooth muscle was implanted in the unlesioned striatum and examined electron microscopically, three and six weeks after implantation. A sprouting response was once again observed in the striatum around the grafts. Putative CNS sprouts, associated with CNS glia and Schwann cells, invaded the grafts.

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