Adult neurogenesis has been profusely studied in central nervous system. However, its presence in enteric nervous system remains elusive although it has been recently demonstrated in mice and intimately linked to glial cells. Moreover, primary cilium is an important organelle in central adult neurogenesis. In the present study, we analysed some parallelisms between central and enteric nervous system (ENS) in humans based on ultrastructural and immunohistochemical techniques. Thus, we described the presence of primary cilia in some subtypes of glial cells and Interstitial Cells of Cajal (ICCs) and we performed 3-D reconstructions to better characterise their features. Besides, we studied the expression of several adult neurogenesis-related proteins. Immature neuron markers were found in human ENS, supporting the existence of adult neurogenesis. However, only ICCs showed proliferation markers. Hence, we propose a new paradigm where ICCs would constitute the original neural stem cells which, through asymmetrical cell division, would generate the new-born neurons.

成人神经发生已在中枢神经系统中进行了大量研究。然而，它在肠神经系统中的存在仍然难以捉摸，尽管它最近已在小鼠中得到证实并与神经胶质细胞密切相关。此外，初级纤毛是成人中枢神经发生的重要细胞器。在本研究中，我们基于超微结构和免疫组织化学技术分析了人类中枢神经系统和肠神经系统 (ENS) 之间的一些相似性。因此，我们描述了一些神经胶质细胞亚型和 Cajal 间质细胞 (ICCs) 中存在初级纤毛，并且我们进行了 3-D 重建以更好地表征它们的特征。此外，我们研究了几种成人神经发生相关蛋白的表达。在人类 ENS 中发现了未成熟的神经元标记，支持成人神经发生的存在。然而，只有 ICC 显示出增殖标志物。因此，我们提出了一种新的范式，其中 ICC 将构成原始的神经干细胞，通过不对称的细胞分裂，将产生新生的神经元。