Figure 6.

Vaginal histologic analysis in Pgr^+/+ and Arid1a^flox/flox; Kras^{Lox-Stop-Lox-G12D/+}; Pgr^Cre/+ (AKP) mice with and without 17-β-estradiol (E2) treatment. A: 16-week–old intact Pgr^+/+ and AKP mouse vaginas are shown for comparison. B: Intact Pgr^+/+ vaginas exhibited normal keratinized stratified squamous epithelium (SSE) with underlying lamina propria (LP). Intact AKP vaginas showed squamous cell carcinoma with central keratinization (star), eosinophilic cytoplasm (arrow), and dysplastic squamous epithelium (DSE). Ovariectomized Pgr^+/+ sham vaginas had signs of vaginal atrophy with thin atrophic epithelium (AE) and thin lamina propria. C: Hormone replacement resulted in a thickened epithelial layer with keratinization and normal lamina propria. B: Ovariectomized AKP sham mice had thinning of vaginal epithelium without evidence of carcinoma. C: Ovariectomized AKP-E2 mice exhibited squamous cell carcinoma with dysplastic squamous epithelium (DSE) and eosinophilic cytoplasm (black arrow). Hematoxylin and eosin staining. Scale bar = 50 μm.