Fig. 4.

Typical immunohistochemical staining patterns of the active forms of AKT (P-AKT) and mTOR (P-mTOR) in normal colon mucosa, colorectal adenoma, and adenocarcinomas. Presence of active AKT is seen in the cytoplasm of all epithelial cells with increasing intensities from the normal mucosa towards adenocarcinoma. Presence of active mTOR is restricted to the surface epithelium in normal mucosa and adenomas. In adenocarcinomas, cells surrounding necrotic areas show active mTOR as well. In addition, in adenocarcinomas, intracellular localization of mTOR changes from cytoplasm towards cellular membrane staining