Figure 1. Altered β-catenin expression associated with intestinal fibrosis in SCD patients.

(A) FFPE sections from a colorectal adenocarcinoma block were also used for a positive to control IHC and IF protein analysis, given the link between APC mutations in patients, altered Wnt signalling, and changes in β-catenin staining. Nuclear accumulation of β-catenin in epithelial cells (EC) within the tumour are shown by the yellow arrow. The IF further shows clear colocalisation (yellow) of β-catenin (488) and Vimentin (555) in the cytoplasm of fibroblastic cells (pink arrow); DAPI staining demarcates the cell nuclei. (B) Representative IHC and IF images of β-catenin in the mucosa (M) overlying SCD and patient-matched NSCD areas (n=6) and MP of SCD and NSCD intestine (n=5). In the images, positively stained EC, endothelial cells surrounding blood vessels (BV) and stromal cells, including cells that morphologically resembled fibroblasts (indicated by arrows) are observed. (C) Enlarged (Zoom) IHC sections from SCD and NSCD mucosa highlighting negatively (yellow arrow) and positively (green arrow) stained fibroblastic cells are highlighted. (D–G) Quantification of the total number and percentage of stromal β-catenin-positive cells in the mucosa and the percentage of β-catenin-positive cells in the MP, excluding endothelial cells associated with BV, demonstrates transmural increases in β-catenin throughout SCD tissues. Differences between SCD and NSCD samples were determined by a paired t-test. Significant results are indicated by * symbol (*<0.05, **<0.01, ***<0.001).