What is it about?

The enteric nervous system is comprised of a complex series of interconnected neurons and glia that control intestinal motility and regulate blood flow within the gut wall. Defects in enteric nervous system formation lead to debilitating conditions such as Hirschsprung’s disease, in which distal regions of the gut cannot effectively pass digested food through the colon. Those who suffer from this anomaly suffer from intestinal obstruction and/or severe constipation. Currently, we still do not fully understand the developmental pathology of this condition. In this study, we discovered that loss of the protein Meis3 leads to defects in enteric nervous system development using zebrafish embryos as a model for human disease.

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Why is it important?

Using zebrafish embryos as a model for human disease, we show that loss of the protein Meis3 leads to colonic aganglionosis, in which the colon is devoid of neurons, identifying it as a novel candidate factor in the etiology of Hirschsprung’s disease during enteric nervous system development.

Perspectives

This is the first study to link defects in enteric nervous system formation to the Meis family proteins. This suggests that mutations or defects in Meis gene activity or protein function may lead to anomalies in enteric nervous system development in humans, which remains to be examined.

Dr Rosa A Uribe
California Institute of Technology

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This page is a summary of: Meis3 is required for neural crest invasion of the gut during zebrafish enteric nervous system development, Molecular Biology of the Cell, September 2015, American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB),
DOI: 10.1091/mbc.e15-02-0112.
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