Fig. 8.

Histological images of the LV myocardium cross-sections of the native porcine hearts, with myocardial interstitial elastin fiber morphology revealed. The interstitial elastin fibers in the myocardium were found to co-exist with the perimysial collagen to bind the cardiomyocyte bundles, and some of the interstitial elastin fibers even showed locally aligned, hinge-like structures to connect the adjacent cardiomyocyte bundles. Arrows in B and D labeled the detailed interstitial elastin fiber structure (B and D were the zoomed-in images of the rectangular boxes in A and C). Arrows in F points out locally aligned, hinge-like elastin fiber structure that connected the adjacent cardiomyocyte bundles (F was the zoomed-in image of the rectangular box in E). Movat's pentachrome staining: Collagen in yellow, elastin fibers in black, and cardiac muscles in red. Scale bar = 100 μm.