Figure 5.

Representative images of collagen crimp throughout gestation in both the anterior leaflet and chordae tendineae. (A–D) Brightfield and polarized light images of the mitral anterior leaflet and strut chordae from first trimester (70 days gestation), second trimester (111 days gestation), third trimester (202 days gestation), and full-term valve (270 days gestation). Images taken at 400×. Scale bar, 0.05 mm. Measurements of collagen crimp wavelength (distance between adjacent wave “peaks”) with gestational age are shown in Figure 6B.