Figure 5.

Myenteric plexus quantitative measures: mice compared with human beings. Comparison of the colon measurements from the proximal, middle, and distal colon obtained in mice with those from human beings.²² (A) Myenteric ganglion area and volume were measured on confocal image stacks in ImageJ using the thresholding method. Data from the human samples were published previously.²² The right colon, also referred to as the ascending colon, is the beginning part of the colon and is equivalent to the mouse proximal colon. The left, or descending, colon begins at the splenic flexure and ends at the sigmoid colon and is equivalent to the mouse distal colon. The terms used in the table (right and left colon) are the same as those in our original article²² and are maintained for clarity. Ganglion area in the mouse proximal colon most approximates that of the human right colon. Overall ganglion packing in the human is best modeled by the mouse middle colon. There are significantly more neurons per square millimeter in the mouse compared with human beings. (A and B) To measure ganglion area and volume in mice, (B–D) ganglia were outlined by hand and then area and volume measures were calculated automatically. (C) Example showing the myenteric plexus outlined in yellow in thresholded sample. (D) Example of regions of interest around myenteric ganglia used for ganglion area measurements. All measurements were performed on tissue derived from the colon as described in Figure 2B1–B3. (C and D) Scale bars: 50 μm.