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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Mar 24.
Published in final edited form as: Cell Tissue Res. 2012 Aug 3;350(2):199–213. doi: 10.1007/s00441-012-1468-7

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

Distribution of ICC in the stomach. (a–f) ICC within the gastric fundus. (a) is a cryostat cross section through the fundus wall and (b) a whole mount preparation of the fundus tunica muscularis. Spindle shaped Kit+ ICC were dispersed within the circular (cm, solid arrows) and longitudinal muscle layers (lm, open arrows). The long axis of the ICC-IM cell bodies ran parallel to the smooth muscle cells of the respective muscle layers. (a,c) A distinct population of ICC was not observed adjacent to the myenteric border but ICC-IM from both muscle layers interconnected with each other and transversed both muscle layers (#). (b) Dense aggregations of ICC-IM in the circular layer ($) appeared to form networks within septa and around muscle bundles and may be analogous to septal ICC (ICC-SEP). (d–e) Not all ICC-IM in the fundus were spindle shaped (d) but cells in the longitudinal layer adjacent to the myenteric region (e) possessed several processes that often contacted adjacent ICC-IM. (f) At higher power, ICC-IM in both layers displayed spiny protrusions extending from the bi-lateral processes. Numerous rounded mast cells (*) were observed throughout the gastric fundus. (g–i) ICC within the gastric antrum. (g) is a cryosection cut transverse to the circular layer showing ICC-IM in the circular (cm, arrows) but not the longitudinal (lm) layer. ICC-SEP were observed to surround muscle bundles ($). A dense network of ICC-MY were observed interspersed between and surrounding myenteric ganglia (arrowheads), that can be seen in a flat mount section (h). ICC-MY possessed several processes that extended from a central nuclear region and contacted adjacent ICC-MY to form a distinct network (arrowheads). (i) Spindle shaped ICC-IM (arrows) ran parallel to the long axis of the circular layer (cm). ICC-IM possessed lateral processes that extended from the main body and contacted adjacent ICC-IM forming a loose network. Aggregations of ICC-IM formed rope-like networks, reminiscent of ICC-SEP ($), within the circular layer. Numerous mast cells were observed in the longitudinal layer and along the submucosal surface of the circular layer (*). Scale bars = 100 μm in (a & g), 50 μm in (b,c,d,e,h) and 25 μm in (f & h)