FIGURE 3.
Identification of fibrillar components of the corneal stroma of orthotypical (OAC) and heterotypical (HAC) artificial corneas and controls. PSR: picrosirius red histochemistry for collagen fibers detection; VER: Verhoeff histochemistry for elastic fibers; RET: Gomori’s reticulin histochemistry for reticular fibers. The area in which the in vivo histological images were obtained is labeled with a blue square in the illustration representing the rabbit cornea shown at the upper right corner. Bioartificial corneas kept ex vivo for 7, 14 and 21 days, and corneas grafted in vivo for 3 and 12 months are shown. Controls (CTR) correspond to native, normal human corneas. Scale bars: 50 µm (applicable to all images). Histograms to the right correspond to the quantitative analysis of signal intensity quantified in intensity units (i.u.) of the ImageJ software. Asterisks represent statistically significant differences as compared to CTR corneas.