Figure 9.

Confocal micrographs showing P2Y₆, P2Y₁ and NTPDase2 immunoreactivity in transverse sections of the detrusor smooth layer of rat urinary bladder. To facilitate visualization of small cholinergic nerve terminals staining for VAChT (red) images correspond to the intensity projections over Z axis of five to six confocal microscopy stacks taken at the smooth muscle layer. No co-localization was found between P2Y₆ receptor (green) and VAChT (red) immunoreactivity. Conversely, VAChT-positive cholinergic nerve terminals (red) stained positively with antibodies against the P2Y₁ receptor and E-NTPDase2 (green); yellow staining denotes co-localization. Nucleic DNA is stained with DAPI (blue). Scale bars = 50 μm.