A stereological study of 3D printed tissues engineered from rat vaginas.

ABSTRACT:

Background

This study aims to retrieve the stereological data from rat vaginas for 3D printing tissue-engineered vaginas.

Methods

In this study, five female Sprague-Dawley rats, aged 8-12 weeks, were used to obtaining the vagina tissues. Each vagina was divided into eight segments fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde and embedded in paraffin, whose two consecutive sections of each block were stained using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and anti-α-actin antibody with immunohistochemistry staining, respectively. The thickness of the epithelium, lamina propria, the smooth muscle layer, and the adventitia layer are measured. Then, the volume density of the epithelial cells and smooth muscle cells are counted using design-based stereology.

Results

The length and width of the rat vagi

SUBMITTER: Tian Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7729310 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature