Figure 1. Anatomy of the human stomach.

The inset provides more detail of the layers of the stomach wall and indicates the location of the myenteric plexus of Auerbach. Interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCs), which are specialized, spindle-shaped cells located in the gut wall that function as pacemaker cells and help regulate slow-wave peristalsis of the gut, form a network around the myenteric plexus of Auerbach and serve to regulate neural input to the smooth muscle cells of the muscularis propria. The ICC cell bodies lie in close proximity to myenteric nerves, whereas their processes extend deeply into the inner and outer layers of the muscularis, contacting individual myocytes.