Distribution of obscurins in the rodent spleen.

<p>Obscurins are present in the outer capsule (black arrows) of the mouse (A-A1) and rat (F-F1) spleen. In addition, they are expressed in the lymphocytes of B-cell follicles of the white pulp (yellow arrows) in both mouse (B) and rat (G). However, obscurins are absent from the T-cell area (purple arrows) surrounding the central arteriole of either mouse (B) or rat (G) spleen. Only those obscurins carrying NH₂-terminal epitopes are found within the perivascular region (pink arrows) of both mouse (C) and rat (I) spleen. Unique to rat spleen (H), the cells within the marginal zone surrounding the white pulp are immunopositive for obscurins carrying the α-NH₂ and α-kinase epitopes (light blue arrows). Moreover, obscurins are detected in both the cytoplasm (green arrows) and nuclei (white asterisks) of cells residing in the red pulp of both mouse (D-D1) and rat (J-J1) spleen. Obscurins are also present within the trabeculae (orange arrows) of both mouse (D and D2) and rat (J and J2). Furthermore, we observe staining of VSMCs (red arrows) and VECs (dark blue arrows) in both mouse (E-E1) and rat (K-K1) spleen. Images are shown at multiple magnifications to highlight the various immunopositive structures. Scale bars are included in each panel for reference.