Cx26 immunostaining and quantitative analysis in the neuromuscular compartment of normal and diverticular disease human colon.

<p>In normal colon, Cx26 is widely expressed in both circular (CM) and longitudinal muscle (LM) (A), while it is decreased in samples from DD colon (B); scale bar: 100 µm. At higher magnification (C–F), SMCs show a punctuated immunoreactivity, which is localized at the membrane (arrows), cytoplasmic (asterisks), paranuclear and nuclear (arrowheads) levels; scale bars: 50 µm. (G) Image analysis of Cx26 expression. Each column represents the PPP mean ± SD (9