Figure 4.

Samples of vaginal mucosa respectively a) and c) before, b) and d) 1 hour after laser application. Picrosirius red stained sections. a) and b) observed with not polarised light. a) atrophic mucosa with a relatively thin epithelium formed by small compacted cells, and connective tissue intensely stained. b) epithelium appears much thicker, with big cells desquamating at the epithelial surface. The connective tissue of papilla is mainly formed by thin fibrils. The same sections, observed at the circularly polarised light microscope, are represented in b) and c) respectively. The visible coloured structures are constituted by collagen fibres which, without any additional filter, are showing different colours, appearing red, or orange, or green or yellow. This is due to different collagens and specific interactions with the Sirius red stain. The epithelium is not visible because it does not contain birefringent structures