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Neuropod Cells: The Emerging Biology of Gut-Brain Sensory Transduction
Open accessAbstract
Guided by sight, scent, texture, and taste, animals ingest food. Once ingested, it is up to the gut to make sense of the food's nutritional value. Classic sensory systems rely on neuroepithelial circuits to convert stimuli into signals that guide behavior. However, sensation of the gut milieu was thought to be mediated only by the passive release of hormones until the discovery of synapses in enteroendocrine cells. These are gut sensory epithelial cells, and those that form synapses are referred to as neuropod cells. Neuropod cells provide the foundation for the gut to transduce sensory signals from the intestinal milieu to the brain through fast neurotransmission onto neurons, including those of the vagus nerve. These findings have sparked a new field of exploration in sensory neurobiology—that of gut-brain sensory transduction.
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“Enteroendocrine and enterochromaffin cells (ECCs) form close synaptic connections with certain vagal afferent fibers through cell extensions called neuropods [25, 26].”
From Role of diet and its effects on the gut microbiome in the pathophysiology of mental disorders (2022) · cites this paper as [25]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Kaelberer, M. M., Rupprecht, L. E., Liu, W. W., Weng, P., & Bohórquez, D. V.
- Affiliations
- Duke University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bohórquez, Diego V.
- Venue
- Annual Review of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Annual Reviews
- Published
- 2020-07-08
- Volume
- 43
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 337-353
- ISSN
- 0147-006X (ISSN-L)
- 1545-4126
- PMC
- PMC7573801
- OpenAlex
- W3007159566
- Cited by
- 236
- References
- 115
- Citations by year
- 2026: 44 · 2025: 58 · 2024: 43 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 7
- FWCI
- 3.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Annual Review of Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Duke-NUS Medical School
- National Institutes of Health (5r21at010818-02)
- National Institute of Mental Health (DP2MH122402)
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32GM007171)
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (R21-AT010818)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Gastroenterology › Gastrointestinal motility and disorders
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Sensory Systems › Ion Channels and Receptors
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Biochemical Analysis and Sensing Techniques
- Keywords
- enteroendocrine cells, synapses, neurotransmission, vagus nerve, intestinal hormones
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Brain, Humans, Neurons, Synapses, Vagus Nerve, Signal Transduction, Enteroendocrine Cells
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