Neuro-interstitial Junction in a Gastropod, Glossodoris

Abstract

ON the basis of ultrastructural observations, we have suggested a unified “glio-interstitial” cell-system in the Mediterranean sea-slug Glossodoris¹. This system includes the glial cells described in the central nervous system of several gastropods^2–3 and the “interstitial cells” associated with the peripheral nervous system. The later non-neuronal elements resemble the “interstitial cells of Cajal” in the peripheral nervous system of vertebrates⁴ in their relationship with nerve plexuses and smooth muscle fibres, in their morphology and in their staining properties (ref. 5 and my unpublished results). A special type of junction between nerve fibres and interstitial cells has been found in an electron microscope study of the foot of Glossodoris tricolor (Cantraine).