These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Identification of c-kit-positive cells in the mouse ureter: the interstitial cells of Cajal of the urinary tract.
    Author: Pezzone MA, Watkins SC, Alber SM, King WE, de Groat WC, Chancellor MB, Fraser MO.
    Journal: Am J Physiol Renal Physiol; 2003 May; 284(5):F925-9. PubMed ID: 12540363.
    Abstract:
    The existence of a pacemaker system in the urinary tract capable of orchestrating the movement of filtrated urine from the ureteral pelvis to the distal ureter and lower urinary tract seems intuitive. The coordinated activity necessary for such movement or "peristalsis" would likely require an intricate network of cells with pacemaker-like activity, as is the case with the interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) of the gut. We investigated whether these putative pacemaker cells of the urinary tract are antigenically similar to ICC of the gut by using immunofluorescence staining for c-kit, a cell-surface marker specific for ICC. Ureteral, urinary bladder, and urethral tissues were harvested from female mice of the WBB6F1 strain, and fixed sections were prepared and stained for c-kit. Cell networks composed of stellate-appearing, c-kit-positive, ICC-like cells were found in the lamina propria and at the interface of the inner longitudinal and outer circular muscle layers of the ureteral pelvis but not in the urinary bladder or urethra. Thus, like in the gut, c-kit-positive, ICC-like cells are present in the urinary tract but appear to be restricted to the proximal ureter of this murine species.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]