Fig. 3

Expression of cholinergic markers, α7nAChR, M3R, and ChAT in tissues from patients diagnosed with early stages, I + II (A-A’’’’) and advanced stages, III + IV (B-B’’’’). Tissues were labeled with the nuclei marker DAPI (blue; A and B), a7nAChR (magenta; A’ and B’), M3R (red; A’’ and B’’), ChAT (green; A’’’ and B’’’) and all markers merged (A’’’’ and B’’’’). The scale bar represents 50 μm. Bar graphs displaying the mean fluorescence (arb. units) expression of α7nAChR (C), M3R (D), and ChAT (E) in patients with early stages, I + II, and advanced stages of CRC. Data presented as mean ± SEM, early stages, I + II, n = 49, and advanced stages, III + IV, n = 42. Student t-test, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001