Routine colonic biopsies as a new tool to study the enteric nervous system in living patients

Better characterization of enteric neuropathies during the course of gastrointestinal diseases could be of great diagnostic and/or therapeutic interest. However, studies using whole mounts of the enteric nervous system (ENS) are restricted to specific diseases requiring surgery and are also limited by the small number of specimens available. Therefore, we here describe a novel method to obtain whole mounts of submucosal plexus in routine colonic biopsies. We show that a single biopsy displays a substantial number of submucosal ganglia and neurons and that it can be reliably used to perform morphometric and neurochemical analysis and Western Blots quantification of neuronal or glial markers. This method of analysis of the human ENS will enable us to gain better insight into the characterization of enteric neuropathies in living patients.