Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Jan 17.
Published in final edited form as: Urology. 2010 May 15;76(4):1018.e8–1018.13. doi: 10.1016/j.urology.2010.02.055

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Effects of DVDO and estrogen on urethral elastic fibers. Female rats were sham-operated (Delivery-only), DVDO-treated, or DVDO+E2-treated; 8 weeks later, their urethras were stained for elastic fibers. A. In the submucosa of Delivery-only rats, elastic fibers were scanty and short; in the smooth muscle, they were abundant; in the striated muscle, they were not as abundant but were longer. In DVDO-treated rats, elastic fibers were fewer and shorter in all three compartments; in DVDO+E2-treated rats, elastic fibers were fewest and shortest in all three compartments. Images in the large panels were originally photographed at 400x; those in the inserts at 1000x. Arrows point to representative elastic fibers or fragments. B. The elastic fibers in all three compartments were quantified by counting the number of pixels of positively stained elastic fibers in 5 high-power fields (HPF) per tissue sample. Statistical analysis of the average of the number of pixels/HPF of each treatment group (n=6 per group) indicated significant differences (* p<0.05), between the DVDO+E2 and DVDO groups.