RamonyCajal在肠道中发现了一种特殊的细胞类型,他在100年前将其命名为“间质神经元”。在1970年代初,电子显微镜/电子显微镜(EM)研究表明,确实与Cajal发现的细胞相对应的特殊间质细胞类型位于肠肌衣中,但很明显它们不是神经元。因此,它们被更名为“Cajal间质细胞”(ICC),并被认为是肠道运动的参与者。在过去的10年中,许多小组对ICC是否存在于胃肠道外感兴趣。事实上,在上尿路和下尿路中发现了特殊的间质细胞,血管,胰腺,男性和女性生殖道,乳腺,胎盘,and,最近,在心脏和肠道中。这样的细胞,现在主要被称为间质Cajal样细胞(ICLC),被赋予了不同和令人困惑的名字。此外,ICLC仅明显类似于规范的ICC。事实上,EM和细胞培养揭示了ICLC非常特殊的特征,明确地将它们与ICC和所有其他间质细胞区分开来:存在2-5个非常薄的细胞体延长(小于0.2mum,在光学显微镜的分辨率下),非常长(几十到几百个妈妈),具有moniliform方面(沿着许多扩张),以及caveolae。鉴于这些延长的独特尺寸(非常长和非常薄),并避免与其他间质细胞类型(例如成纤维细胞,纤维细胞,成纤维细胞样细胞,间充质细胞),我们为他们提出了TELOCYTES这个词,和TELOPODES的延长,通过使用希腊词缀\'telos\'。
Ramon y Cajal discovered a particular cell type in the gut, which he named \'interstitial neurons\' more that 100 years ago. In the early 1970s, electron microscopy/electron microscope (EM) studies showed that indeed a special interstitial cell type corresponding to the cells discovered by Cajal is localized in the gut muscle coat, but it became obvious that they were not neurons. Consequently, they were renamed \'interstitial cells of Cajal\' (ICC) and considered to be pace-makers for gut motility. For the past 10 years many groups were interested in whether or not ICC are present outside the gastrointestinal tract, and indeed, peculiar interstitial cells were found in: upper and lower urinary tracts, blood vessels, pancreas, male and female reproductive tracts, mammary gland, placenta, and, recently, in the heart as well as in the gut. Such cells, now mostly known as interstitial Cajal-like cells (ICLC), were given different and confusing names. Moreover, ICLC are only apparently similar to canonical ICC. In fact, EM and cell cultures revealed very particular features of ICLC, which unequivocally distinguishes them from ICC and all other interstitial cells: the presence of 2-5 cell body prolongations that are very thin (less than 0.2 mum, under resolving power of light microscopy), extremely long (tens to hundreds of mum), with a moniliform aspect (many dilations along), as well as caveolae. Given the unique dimensions of these prolongations (very long and very thin) and to avoid further confusion with other interstitial cell types (e.g. fibroblast, fibrocyte, fibroblast-like cells, mesenchymal cells), we are proposing the term TELOCYTES for them, and TELOPODES for their prolongations, by using the Greek affix \'telos\'.