Rhythm .

The ability of intestinal smooth muscle to undergo spontaneous, rhythmical contractions has fascinated man for centuries. With this sentence the belated A.Bortoff started the chapter on smooth muscle in the book "A Guide to Gastrointestinal Motility" edited by J.Christensen and D.L.Wingate and published in 1983. Two years later S.Sarna noted that a new area of study had developed, namely the study of groups of contractions (Gastroenterology 89:894-913, 1985), and in several International Symposia the periodicity of the migrating motor complex was indeed in the spotlight.

Not so any more today. Interest in the migrating motor complex has waned, despite the fact the "clock" remains a mystery. In contrast the origin of slow wave frequency has returned to the foreground and some claim that they fully understand it and the institial cells of Cajal appear to be the key elements.

In this truly multidisciplinary Symposium, the identity and role of these interstitial cells will be critically examined by J.Szursweski and K.Sanders. Next those who looked at slow waves as a phenomenon that does not need to be understood to find applications for it, will give their understanding of diagnostic (A.Smout) and therapeutic (J.Chen) apllications. The final talk (J.Thomas) will tell us how intestinal rhythm is understood at the molecular level in an organism that received much attention lately.

Some may argue that a worm is too far away from a mammal to merit our attention, but on the other hand it is an organism that has a lot of bowel. Perhaps we can learn something from it.