The ENS also plays an important role in host defense, for instance by increasing motility and secretion to expel noxious agents, and via neuro-epithelial and neuroimmune interactions. These functions are in turn essential for a variety of gut processes including digestion and absorption, passage of content, as well as maintenance of body fluid homeostasis. The enteric nervous system (ENS) is critical for orchestrating gut motility, secretion, and blood flow along the entire gastrointestinal tract. We then further discuss how enteric circuits detect and process external information, how these signals may be modulated by physiological and pathophysiological factors, and finally, how outputs are generated for integrated gut function. In this review, we first focus on the current knowledge on the cellular composition of enteric circuits. Thus, the enteric circuitry plays a central role in intestinal homeostasis, and this becomes particularly evident when there are faults in its wiring such as in neurodevelopmental or neurodegenerative disorders.
Other areas that have been gaining increased attention include its interaction with the immune system, with the gut microbiota and its involvement in the gut–brain axis, and neuro-epithelial interactions. The major functions of the ENS that have been most studied include the regulation of local gut motility, secretion, and blood flow. The enteric nervous system (ENS) is an extensive network comprising millions of neurons and glial cells contained within the wall of the gastrointestinal tract.
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