Fig 1.
Representative photomicrographs of full-thickness normal rat colon showing the distribution pattern of collagen fibers stained with van Gieson (VG, A-D), Sirius Red (SR, E-H) and Sirius Red/Fast Green (SR/FG, I-L).
CM and LM: circular and longitudinal muscle, respectively; MP: myenteric plexus. Scale bars represent 50 μm. Scatter plots show the percentage of positive pixel (PPP) of collagen ± SEM obtained from 6 rats in the whole colonic wall (M) and tunica muscularis (N). *,° P = 0.028 versus VG and SR, respectively.
Fig 2.
Representative photomicrographs of haematoxylin/eosin-stained full-thickness colonic samples from normal rats (A,B), or rats with DNBS-induced colitis at day 6 (C,D).
Normal colon displays a normal morphological architecture of the wall and myenteric ganglia. In the inflamed colon, the following alterations are evident: infiltrated tunica submucosa; thickened and infiltrated tunica muscularis and serosa; vacuolated myenteric ganglia with altered cells and abundant eosinophilic infiltrations along the myenteric ridge (D, arrows and arrowheads, respectively). Scale bars represent 50 μm.
Fig 3.
Representative photomicrographs of full-thickness inflamed rat colon showing the distribution pattern of collagen fibers stained with van Gieson (VG, A-D), Sirius Red (SR, E-H) or Sirius Red/Fast Green (SR/FG, I-L).
CM and LM: circular and longitudinal muscle, respectively; MP: myenteric plexus. Scale bars represent 50μm. Scatter plots show the percentage of positive pixel (PPP) of collagen ± SEM obtained from 6 rats in the whole colonic wall (M) and tunica muscularis (N). *,° P = 0.028 versus VG and SR, respectively.