Sitting alongside the neurons in your enteric nervous system are underappreciated glial cells, which play key roles in digestion and disease that scientists are only just starting to understand Your gut has a mind of its own. A “second brain” of nervous system cells, including glia (stained green in this cross section of a mouse...
Tag: <span>second brain</span>
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Study reveals the role of our ‘second brain’ in diabetes
Researchers have uncovered new clues to the mystery of how the gut’s nervous system affects glucose metabolism in the rest of the body. Their findings could lead to new treatments for type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes causes the body’s cells to become less sensitive to signals from insulin, the hormone responsible for regulating levels of...
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Targeting our second brain to fight diabetes
UNIVERSITÉ CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN IMAGE: PATRICE CANI (UCLOUVAIN) AND CLAUDE KNAUF (INSERM) HAVE DISCOVERED A ‘JAMMER’ THAT BLOCKS COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE GUT AND THE BRAIN, THUS PREVENTING PROPER REGULATION OF SUGAR AND CAUSING INSULIN RESISTANCE. Since 2004, Claude Knauf (INSERM) and Patrice Cani (UCLouvain) have been collaborating on molecular and cellular mechanisms in order to...
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Parkinson’s discovery implicates “second brain” in the gut
By Nick Lavars A growing body of evidence is forging a stronger and stronger connection between the onset of Parkinson’s disease and the gut. Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have thrown further weight behind this theory, with an investigation of cellular behavior in the nervous...
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‘Second brain’ neurons keep colon moving
Millions of neurons in the gastrointestinal tract coordinate their activity to generate the muscle contractions that propel waste through the last leg of the digestive system, according to a study of isolated mouse colons published in JNeurosci. The newly identified neuronal firing pattern may represent an early feature preserved through the evolution of nervous systems. The...