Elsevier

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 241, Issues 2–3, 30 January 1998, Pages 123-126
Neuroscience Letters

Apposition of enteric nerve fibers to plasma cells and immunoblasts in the mouse small bowel

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3940(98)00004-4Get rights and content

Abstract

Light (LM) and electron microscopy (EM) were used to investigate the structural relationship between enteric nerves and the population of immune cells in the mouse small bowel. By LM, the osmium-zinc iodide procedure was used for visualizing nerve fibers; the incidence of nerve-plasma cell contacts in the mucosa and submucosa was calculated to be ~4 times and, respectively, 3 times greater than would be expected by chance alone (P<0.0001). EM revealed close, synaptic-like contacts between axonal varicosities and plasma cells or B immunoblasts. The results presented here provide systematic quantitative evidence that a structural foundation for communication between nerve fibers and B cells exists in the mouse small bowel.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Fondo Ricerca Dipartimentale, University of Udine.

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