A Gut Feeling

The old saying goes that you can “feel it in your gut”. But did you know that neurons in your gut dedicated to feeling physical sensations are vital for digesting your food properly? Called sensory neurons, there are lots of different types that can be distinguished from each other by their shape, electrical properties and chemicals they release. Researchers now identify a new marker for a group of of these nerve cells: a protein called Cdh6. Through a barrage of tests, they revealed Cdh6 neurons demonstrate all the telltale signs of being gut sensory neurons. This includes having a particular shape called 'Dogiel type II' (pictured). Curiously, when these sensory neurons were activated in mice, they caused the gut to rhythmically move backwards in a wave-like motion. This sheds light on a new role for gut sensory neurons.

Image created using Leica Microsystems microscopy

Written by Lux Fatimathas

• Image from work by Julieta Gomez-Frittelli and colleagues
• Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife, April 2025