Anatomical and functional maturation of the mid-gestation human enteric nervous system

Immature gastrointestinal motility impedes preterm infant survival. The enteric nervous system controls gastrointestinal motility, yet it is unknown when the human enteric nervous system matures enough to carry out vital functions. Here we demonstrate that the second trimester human fetal enteric nervous system takes on a striped organization akin to the embryonic mouse. Further, we perform ex vivo functional assays of human fetal tissue and find that human fetal gastrointestinal motility matures in a similar progression to embryonic mouse gastrointestinal motility. Together, this provides critical knowledge, which facilitates comparisons with common animal models to advance translational disease investigations and testing of pharmacological agents to enhance gastrointestinal motility in prematurity. Dershowitz and colleagues assess second trimester human fetal enteric nervous system development and function. They describe structural reorganization of the enteric nervous system that corresponds to gastrointestinal motility onset in ex vivo preparations.

Automated summary

The study reveals that the human enteric nervous system starts to develop during the second trimester and follows a similar pattern to embryonic mice in terms of gastrointestinal motility. These findings are crucial for comparing with animal models, which can improve disease investigations and drug testing.