Fig 2: Immunoreactivity (IR) of galanin receptors (GALR1—(A), GALR2—(C), and GALR3—(E)) in myenteric plexuses (MP) distantly and proximity located to cancer invasion in individual colorectal (CRC) patients. The average immunoreactivities of GALRs (GALR1—(B), GALR2—(D), and GALR3—(F)) in myenteric plexuses (MP) located distantly from CRCcells were compared with those in plexuses in the vicinity of cancer cells of colorectal (CRC) patients (n = 31).

Fig 3: Immunohistochemical expression of galanin receptors (GALR1, GALR2, and GALR3) in myenteric plexuses (MP) distantly located from the colorectal cancer (CRC) tissue compared with their expression in the myenteric plexuses in the vicinity of cancer invasion of the same, representative CRC patients (n = 31). Neurons expressing respective GALRs are marked by arrows. Total magnification: 400× g.

Fig 4: Immunoreactivity of three types of galanin receptor GalR1 (A1), GalR2 (B1) and GalR3 (C1) proteins in tumor sections of individual colorectal cancer (CRC) patients is shown in relation to their immunoreactivity in matched sections of unchanged mucosa. The average immunoreactivity of GalR1 (A2), GalR2 (B2), and GalR3 (C2) proteins in CRC cells (grey bars) compared with their immunoexpression in the epithelial cells of unchanged mucosa (white bars) was determined as described in the Methods (n = 55).

Fig 5: The immunolocalization of GalR1, GalR2 and GalR3 proteins was confined to the cell membrane and cytoplasm of colorectal cancer cells and epithelial cells (enterocytes and goblet cells) of the unchanged mucosa of the large intestine (Figure 3). In addition, the immunoreactivity of GalR1-3 proteins was observed in the cell membrane and cytoplasm of intestinal immune/stromal cells, the myenteric plexuses and smooth muscle cells (unpublished). Negative control was added as inserts in each merged microphotograph.