Research progress on pacemaker function of interstitial cells of Cajal in gastrointestinal tract / 中国病理生理杂志

ABSTRACT

[ ABSTRACT] Interstitial cells of Cajal ( ICC) is the pacemaker in the gastrointestinal tract , which is closely as-sociated with the formation of slow wave and the regulation of gastrointestinal motility .As the pacemaker of gastrointestinal tract, the activation of pacing signal is triggered by the local calcium oscillation in the ICC .The change of calcium concen-tration can activate many relevant ion channels , such as NSCC, ANO1, VGCC, HCN channels and potassium channels , which can generate a large number of pacing current to form the slow wave and then propagated by the gap junction between the ICC networks and smooth muscle cells to make the peristalsis of gastrointestinal tract in autonomic rhythm .However, the mechanism of these ion channels in the pacemaker activity is still unclear , so we refer to make a review about the re-search progress on these pacemaker channels in this article to illuminate the mechanism of pacemaker activity in ICC .