Fig. 4.

Evaluation of ultrasound and morphology of mildly elastase-treated decellularized tissue-engineered vascular grafts in the rat arteriovenous graft models. A) Schematic illustrating the construction of the rat AVG models. B) The macroscopic morphology of mildly elastase-treated dTEVGs at day 0 and day 42. C) Color doppler blood flow imaging of mildly elastase-treated dTEVGs at day 42. D) Ultrasound spectral analysis of the carotid arteries, grafts and jugular veins in the rat AVG models. The appearance of AVG specific spectral patterns after transplantation indicating successful modeling. E) The inner diameters of mildly elastase-treated dTEVGs and control groups measured at day 7, 21 and 42 post-operations (n = 4, non-significant difference is not marked). F) Morphology of grafts assessed by H&E staining after decellularization, after mild elastase treatment, and after 42-day transplantation of both. G) Perimeter of grafts after decellularization, after mild elastase treatment, and after 42-day transplantation of both (n = 4, non-significant difference is not marked). (H) Equivalent luminal area of grafts after decellularization, after mild elastase treatment, and after 42-day transplantation of both (n = 4, non-significant difference is not marked). Elas.: elastase treatment. V: vein. G: graft. A: artery. Data are represented as mean ± standard deviations. ∗P < 0.05, ∗∗P < 0.01, ∗∗∗P < 0.001, ∗∗∗∗P < 0.0001.