At the NeuroGASTRO 2015 meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, neuroimmune crosstalk was a big topic under discussion. Hanne Vanheel presented work on the role of the enteric nervous system (ENS) in functional dyspepsia. Duodenal biopsies of patients with functional dyspepsia had dysfunctional neurons in the submucosal plexus. In addition, an increased number of eosinophils and mast cells infiltrated the submucosal layer and correlated with the amplitude of calcium transients (a measure of neuronal activity). Sabine Bühner presented on the crosstalk between mast cells and ENS nerves. She showed sequential calcium signalling in the mast and nerve cell, and implicated calcitonin gene-related peptide as the neurotransmitter involved.
The interdisciplinary nature of neurogastroenterology and motility research was also prominent at the conference. Interindividual variation in pain perception of gastrointestinal disease is known to involve differences in psychophysiological factors (personality, physical effects of the insult, for example acid reflux). Research is now underway into how to identify these differences and using a more holistic approach by combining drug, psychological (for example, cognitive behavioural therapy) and physical (for example, deep breathing exercises) treatment strategies.
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