VFF: Visualizing the food-sensing biosensors of our gut

Our brain is fed with sensory information from food in our gut through specialized biosensors called enteroendocrine cells. For a long time these cells have been assumed to communicate with nerves indirectly through hormones. The primary reason is that they are difficult to identify and a complete description of their anatomy is lacking. Here we develop a method to correlate confocal microscopy with serial block face scanning electron microscopy and document the entire ultrastructure of a specific enteroendocrine cell. Using manual segmentation and volume rendering, we uncovered in enteroendocrine cells a prominent neuropod ¿ the missing link to nerves carrying sensory information to the brain.