Lars Thomsen and coworkers published in 1998 the first direct evidence that cells in culture identified as Interstitial Cells of Cajal by morphological criteria and subsequent positive reporting of expression of mRNA for the KIT receptor by single-cell PCR showed spontaneous oscillating membrane currents with a frequency corresponding to the frequency of “slow-waves” a signal recorded from smooth muscles cells and which had previously been associated with a pacemaker signal that no-one could identify the origin of.
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In other developments, gastrointestinal stromal tumors have been shown to be KIT-positive and generally accepted as arising from Interstitial Cells of Cajal and thus this cell type is a target in oncology therapy.