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Unique characteristics of “the second brain” – The enteric nervous system

LI Jun-Hua¹, DUAN Rui¹, LI Liang², WOOD Jackie D³, WANG Xi-Yu^1,3,4, SHU Yousheng⁵, WANG Guo-Du^1,3,4,*

¹Department of Gastroenterology, Jingmen First Hospital, Jingmen 448000, China；²State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China；³Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, USA；⁴Institute of Brain-ENS and Disease Research, West Chester 45069, USA；⁵Institute for Translational Brain Research, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China

Abstract

Enteric nervous system (ENS) is composed of intestinal submucosal and myenteric plexuses. ENS may independently regulate intestinal digestive and absorptive function, and it is also known as “the second brain” or gut brain. ENS has significant specificity relative to central nervous system (CNS) in properties and functional activities of neurons and neural circuits. ENS is connected with CNS through the feedback pathway (brain-gut-axis) of sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves and peripheral primary sensory afferent nerves to form the bidirectional brain-gut-axis, which may affect emotion, appetite and behavioral states of individuals. Gastrointestinal functional disorder (GIFD) induced by ENS dysfunction may not only cause abnormal gastrointestinal function but also has been implicated in cognitive and mood disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). GIFD would influence deeply the quality of life in patients. Nevertheless, in the worldwide, ENS has so far received much less attention as compared with CNS. The depth of research and scale of investment in ENS studies have been much lower than those in CNS studies. The situation in China is even more evident. From ENS research history, an outstanding problem is to ignore largely the unique properties of ENS and apply mechanically the hypotheses formed in CNS studies to ENS researches. In this review, the structure and function of ENS are briefly introduced, and the importance of extraordinary characteristics of ENS is illustrated by the problems encountered in our studies. 

Key words: enteric nervous system (ENS); neuron; gastrointestinal function; nervous dysfunction;

Received: 2019-09-26　　Accepted: 2020-01-02

Corresponding author: 王过渡　　E-mail: gd53wang@hotmail.com

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2020.0032

Citing This Article：

LI Jun-Hua, DUAN Rui, LI Liang, WOOD Jackie D, WANG Xi-Yu, SHU Yousheng, WANG Guo-Du. Unique characteristics of “the second brain” – The enteric nervous system. Acta Physiol Sin 2020; 72 (3): 382-390 (in Chinese with English abstract).