Table 2.
Summary of the morphometric analysis performed to evaluate c-Kit+/SCF+ mast cells around blood vessels.
| Analysis | EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NS | vs | CN | vs | DN | vs | M | |
| CD31+ blood vessels immunolabeling positivity at 40x magnification | 0.010496 ± 0.001164 |
ns | 0.014543 ± 0.000963 |
* | 0.022343 ± 0.001654 |
**** | 0.042335 ± 0.009406 |
| Number of CD31+ blood vessels/field at 40x magnification | 1 ± 0.5 |
ns | 2 ± 1 |
** | 3 ± 1 |
**** | 10 ± 1 |
| VEGFA+ tumor cells immunolabeling positivity at 40x magnification | 0.002165 ± 0.000317 |
ns | 0.017022 ± 0.005223 |
**** | 0.182269 ± 0.011900 |
**** | 0.357288 ± 0.032636 |
| VEGFA+ cells surrounding blood vessels immunolabeling positivity at 40x magnification | 0.005185 ± 0.000186 |
** | 0.044378 ± 0.005987 |
* | 0.070713 ± 0.0006719 |
**** | 0.176649 ± 0.031862 |
| CD31+ blood vessels immunolabeling positivity at 20x magnification | 0.005016 ± 0.000720 |
ns | 0.008073 ± 0.000556 |
** | 0.014986 ± 0.000965 |
**** | 0.024751 ± 0.007599 |
| SCF+ mast cells immunolabeling positivity at 20x magnification | 0.018520 ± 0.001716 |
**** | 0.031347 ± 0.005586 |
**** | 0.060341 ± 0.004191 |
**** | 0.114667 ± 0.007065 |
| c-Kit+ mast cells immunolabeling positivity at 20x magnification | 0.008168 ± 0.000506 |
* | 0.016015 ± 0.001027 |
*** | 0.024208 ± 0.001522 |
**** | 0.0444600 ± 0.005451 |
| Number of SCF+ mast cells/field at 20x magnification | 19 ± 3 |
* | 25 ± 1 |
**** | 35 ± 4 |
**** | 49 ± 6 |
| Number of c-Kit+ mast cells/field at 20x magnification | 7 ± 1 |
*** | 17 ± 4 |
**** | 26 ± 5 |
**** | 44 ± 4 |
The morphometric values are expressed as mean ± SD (n= 5 for normal skin (NS) group and n=10 for the others) and have been utilised for the graphs in Figures 2 – 4 . Tukey’s post-test was used to compare all groups after One-way ANOVA and Spearman for correlation (ns, not significative; *p ≤ 0.05; **p ≤ 0.01; ***p ≤ 0.001; ****p ≤ 0.0001).