Summary of ganglia and cell bodies stained by antibodies for HuC/D, ChAT and nNOS per millimetre myenteric plexus in different regions of colon from patients of different age groups
| Numbers per mm of myenteric plexus | Age group and region of colon (n=patients studied) | |||
| Adult ascending (8) | Elderly ascending (9) | Adult descending (9) | Elderly descending (10) | |
| HuC/D ganglia/mm | 1.4±0.1 | 1.7±0.2 | 2.1±0.2* | 2.0±0.1 |
| HuC/D neurons/mm | 7.0±0.9 | 10.2±0.9 | 22.9 ± 5.5*† | 15.7±1.5 |
| ChAT neurons/mm | 2.4±0.3 | 5.0±0.6‡ | 5.2±0.8§ | 4.9±0.8 |
| nNOS neurons/mm | 3.8±0.4 | 5.3±0.8 | 6.6±0.8 | 6.2±0.8 |
The data are expressed as means±SEM. Differences between the two age groups and regions of colon were analysed using analysis of variance with Sidak’s multiple comparison tests.
*P<0.01 (between regions).
†Note the existence of an outlier observation among the HuC/D measurements (neurons/mm) in adult descending colon, which could not be excluded (see figure 3).
‡P<0.05 (between age groups).
§P<0.05 (between regions).
ChAT, choline acetyltransferase; HuC/D, human neuronal protein C/D; nNOS, neuronal nitric oxide synthase.