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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 May 21.
Published in final edited form as: J Theor Biol. 2015 Mar 16;373:26–39. doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2015.03.004

Figure 1.

Figure 1

(a) Illustrative diagram of the native ovine mitral valve, demonstrating key anatomical components: two main leaflets (anterior leaflet and posterior leaflet), annulus, chordae tendineae and papillary muscles, (b) stained histologic image showing four-layered structure of the MV tissue (A: atrialis, S: spongiosa, F: fibrosa, V: ventricularis), and (c) transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of the intact MVIC residing in the fibrosa layer of the MVAL, showing the MVIC microenvironment and its alignment with the collagen fibrils in the circumferential direction (scale bar=1 µm, C: circumferential direction, and T: transmural direction).