Objective Assessment of Endogenous Collagen In Vivo during Tissue Repair by Laser Induced Fluorescence
Figure 5
Collagen birefringence under polarized light microscopy.
Histological sections of the un-wounded control, un-illuminated control, and 2 J/cm2 treatment group on day 5, 10, 30 post-wounding stained with a direct red visualized by the polarized microscope (10X). Collagen birefringence pattern of un-wounded skin (A, B, C,), Un-illuminated control (D, E, F) and optimal laser treated group (G, H, I) on days 5, 10, 30 post-wounding respectively. A skin section with hair follicles (A, B, C), Loosely formed early collagen (D), moderate collagen (E), birefringent yellow/red fibers (F), Moderately birefringent red/yellow fibers (G), thick strongly birefringent yellow/red fibers (H) and strongly birefringent thick red fibers (I) as indicated by arrows. Dotted arrow indicates epidemis/epidermal layer and solid arrows indicate the occurrence of collagen.