Immunohistochemical Study On Interstitial Cells Of Cajal And Ganglionic Cells In Hirschsprung's Disease

Objective The incidence rate of Hirschsprung's disease(HD) is 1/5000.It is one of the common reasons of pedo-intestinal obstruction. It seems that the cause of Hirschsprung's disease is the absence of ganglionic cells in the aganglionic segment. Interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) is thought of the cells which generate and communicate the slow waves and play an important role in communication of nerve signals. The current study is to investigate the role of ICC and ganglionic cells in the pathogenesis of HD through observing the distribution of the two types of cells in normal colon and HD's different segments.Methods The aganglionic ,transitional and dilated segments were collected in operation from 25 children with Hirschsprung's disease in Shandong Provincial Hospital.Another 6 normal segmengts were also collected. Each sections was stained by HE and NES, c-Kit immunohisto- chemistry approach.The distribution of the ganglionic cells and the interstitial cells of Cajal was observed by light microscope.Results In the normal colon,ICC were mainly located in the interspace between the circular muscle layer and the submucosal border;within the circular and longitudinal muscle layers and associated with myenteric nerve plexus ,which were called as ICC-SM, ICC-CM,ICC-LM and ICC-IM.However,the ganglionic cells and ICC in aganglionic segments of colon from Hirchsprung's disease were decreased significantly and statistically than that in dilated segments and in normal colon.Moreover,wholemount preparations showed that,not only the number of ICC-IM was decreased down,but also the processes of ICC-IM presented fewer...