比利时鲁汶大学Pieter Vanden Berghe课题组在研究中取得进展。他们的研究发现营养物质激活小肠的肠神经元的不同模式。2025年7月9日出版的《自然》杂志发表了这项成果。

在这里，课题组使用钙成像来识别特定的肠道途径，这些途径是对施加到小鼠空肠的管腔营养物的反应而激活的。值得注意的是，研究团队表明不同的营养物质激活神经化学定义的肌肠和粘膜下神经元集合。

此外，研究团队发现肠神经元对营养物质并不直接敏感，而是通过上皮检测不同的腔内化学物质，主要通过血清素信号通路。最后，他们的数据揭示了沿肠径向轴管腔信息的空间分布，其中一些来自绒毛上皮的信号首先传递到肌肠丛，然后返回到更靠近管腔的粘膜下丛。

研究人员表示，对摄入的营养物质进行检测并作出适当反应的能力对生物体的生存和确保其代谢需求得到满足至关重要。来自肠腔的营养信号触发肠神经系统（ENS）的局部肠反射以促进消化和吸收，但参与初始神经元感觉过程的确切细胞途径尚不清楚。ENS能够在多大程度上识别不同的化学物质也是未知的。

附：英文原文

Title: Nutrients activate distinct patterns of small-intestinal enteric neurons

Author: Fung, Candice, Venneman, Tom, Holland, Amy M., Martens, Tobie, Alata, Milvia I., Hao, Marlene M., Alar, Ceyhun, Obata, Yuuki, Tack, Jan, Sifrim, Alejandro, Pachnis, Vassilis, Boesmans, Werend, Vanden Berghe, Pieter

Issue&Volume: 2025-07-09

Abstract: The ability to detect and respond appropriately to ingested nutrients is essential for an organism’s survival and to ensure its metabolic demands are met. Nutrient signals from the gut lumen trigger local intestinal reflexes in the enteric nervous system (ENS) to facilitate digestion and absorption1,2,3,4, but the precise cellular pathways that are involved in the initial neuronal sensory process remain unclear. The extent to which the ENS is capable of discerning different luminal chemicals is also unknown. Here we use calcium imaging to identify specific enteric pathways that are activated in response to luminal nutrients applied to mouse jejunum. Notably, we show that different nutrients activate neurochemically defined ensembles of myenteric and submucosal neurons. Furthermore, we find that enteric neurons are not directly sensitive to nutrients but detect different luminal chemicals through the epithelium, mainly via a serotonin signalling pathway. Finally, our data reveal a spatial distribution of luminal information along the radial axis of the intestine, whereby some signals that originate from the villus epithelium are transmitted first to the myenteric plexus, and then back to the submucosal plexus, which is closer to the lumen.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09228-z

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09228-z