Figure 1.

Vasculature of the mouse colon overviewed all layers from the serosa to the mucosa, labeled by WGA-AF 488 painting (cyan) and CD31 immunoreactivity (red) in an aboral segment of a mouse mid colon. Most of the microvessels were double-labeled (white). The vascular structures are similar in the mid and distal colon. (A) A 3D image of the flat wall of a mouse mid-colon with z-axis stacks. (B–D) Images are cropped from image (A) into three portions. (B) Capillary net in the mucosa near the lumen with the characteristic honeycomb-shaped rings connected together. (C) Vascular branches in the submucosal layer including the bottom of mucosal crypts. White arrows indicate the branches into the capillary nets at the bottom of mucosal crypts and magenta arrows indicate small veins. (D) Capillary net in the muscle layers near to the myenteric plexus. Blue arrows indicate the lymphatic vessels that had blind starting points (*), and wider and uneven diameters and valves (folds with brighter fluorescence). (E) A vertical section of the mid colon illustrates the location of layers cropped in images (B–D). Scale bars are at the bottom of each image (same as in all figures).