FIG. 3.

Transverse sections of native HUV (A) at 40 × and (B) at 100 ×; acellular HUV construct (C) at 40 ×, (D) at 100 × (abluminal surface), (E) at 100 × (luminal surface), and (F) at 100 ×; fibroblast-repopulated HUV scaffold 21 days after cell seeding (G) at 40 ×, and (H) at 100 ×. All sections were stained with H&E, except for (F), which was stained with Alcian blue at pH 2.5. In all figures, the luminal surface of the construct is oriented toward the right, and the abluminal surface is facing the left. Cross-sectional transition of the tissue layers from the lumen of the construct to the albumen can be clearly seen in (A), (C), and (G), from the endothelium to the smooth muscle layer to the extracellular Wharton's jelly (right to left). Native cellular structures observed in the auto-dissected HUV specimens (A, B) have been removed in the decellularized HUV construct (C–F), whereas significant attachment, proliferation, and infiltration of the primary human vocal fold fibroblasts can be readily seen in the recellularized scaffold (G, H).