Microelectrode array evaluation of gut pacemaker activity in wild-type and W/WvW/Wv mice

Interstitial cells of Cajal in the myenteric plexus region (ICC-MyP) form a network and generate basal pacemaking electrical activity. This morphological feature leads us to believe that these cells may be essential for the coordinating actions of gastrointestinal (GI) motility. We aim to propose a new method for functional assessment of ICC electrical activity and its network. Field potentials in a ∼1 mm2 region were simultaneously measured using an 8 × 8 microelectrode array (MEA) with a polar distance of 150 μm. The extracellular solution contained nifedipine and tetrodotoxin (TTX) to suppress activities of smooth muscle cells and neurons, respectively. We compared spatial electrical activities between ileal muscle preparations from wild-type (WT) and W/WvW/Wv mice. In spatio-temporal analyses, basal electrical activities were well synchronized with a propagation delay in WT, while those in W/WvW/Wv were small in amplitude and irregular in occurrence. The power spectrum in WT had a prominent peak corresponding to the frequency of ICC-MyP pacemaker activity, while that of W/WvW/Wv lacked it. Consequently, the ratio of the spectral power in 9.4–27.0 cpm was significantly larger in WT than in W/WvW/Wv. In conclusion, MEA measurements demonstrated that the network-forming ICC-MyP not only generates but also coordinates basal electrical activities. Disorders of GI motility based on morphological and functional impairments of ICC network with the range of several hundreds of micrometers, could be uncovered in future extensive studies.