Figure 3. Comparative analysis of β-catenin expression and subcellular localization during the colorectal carcinogenesis in humans and rats.

Left panels: Immunohistochemical analysis of colorectal tissues explanted from rats and classified in the different histopathological groups (LD, HD, IS and K), compared with human tissues obtained from patients at the sequential stages of SCC from low grade dysplasia (LD) to invasive adenocarcinoma (K); for each representative image, a detail at higher magnification of colonic epithelial cells is shown on the right inset. Original magnification (OM): 20x, inset: 40x. Right panels: quantitative analyses of the expression and localization (nuclear and membranous), estimated as percentage of samples in which positive cells were less than 10% (negative or weakly positive), from 10 to 50%, and more than 50% of the cells constituting the epithelial mucosa (top bar graphs), and as trend vs normal mucosa (NM), reported as Fold vs NM, calculated as described in Materials and Methods (bottom bar graphs).