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Recently discovered interstitial cells termed telocytes: distinguishing cell-biological and histological facts from fictions

The discovery of cells that connect neurons and smooth muscle cells in the digestive tube dates back to the end of the nineteenth century. Santiago Ramón y Cajal, a Spanish histologist, 1906 Nobel Prize winner and one of the founding fathers of modern neuroscience (De Carlos and Borrell 2007), discovered a peculiar cell population in the wall of the gut. He found these ‘enigmatic’ cells embedded in the loose connective tissue of the tunica muscularis between nerve ganglia and smooth muscle cells. Ramón y Cajal considered them primitive interstitial neurons as it was possible to visualize them by methods typically used in neurohistology, such as silver impregnation or methylene blue staining (Popescu and Faussone-Pellegrini 2010). Despite this discovery, the exact structure and function of the cells remained questionable for more than half a century. Eventually, advancements in transmission electron microscopy enabled the detection of cells that closely resembled what Cajal had described. In his honour, the term ‘interstitial cells of Cajal’ (ICCs) was introduced when it became evident that the cells were not neurons (Faussone Pellegrini et al. 1977; Thuneberg 1982). Interstitial cells of Cajal and the motility of the gut