Fig. 2.

The physiological structure and formation process of the STI around the implant. (A) Flow diagram of the establishment of the implantation model in rats. (B) Schematic illustration of comparison of the STI between natural tooth and implant. (C) Representative images of soft tissue around natural teeth and implants stained with VG, Masson's trichrome, and CD31 immunohistochemistry. Scale bars, 200 μm. Magnify bar, 100 μm. (D) Quantitative analysis of collagen density, n = 6. (E) Quantitative analysis of CD31 expression level, n = 6. (F) Schematic illustration of the formation of the STI around the implant. (G) Representative images of STI around implants in different time points, stained with Hematoxylin-Eosin (H&E). Scale bars, 200 μm. Magnify bar, 50 μm. The value is expressed as the means ± SD. (∗∗∗P < 0.001).