Neuro-immunophysiology of colon function

Neuroimmunophysiology involves direct communication between the mucosal immune system and the minibrain in the colon. Communication is chemical in nature (paracrine) and involves specialized sensing functions of the immune cells for specific antigens together with intelligent interpretation of the signals by the enteric nervous system. Immunoneural integration progresses sequentially starting with immune detection followed by signal transfer to enteric microcircuits followed by neural interpretation and then selection of a specific neural program of coordinated mucosal secretion and motor propulsion that acts to clear the antigenic threat from the colonic lumen. Histamine and serotonin are important chemical messages released from mucosal mast cells to act at specific receptor subtypes on neural elements of the enteric minibrain.