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Fig. 3 | Breast Cancer Research

Fig. 3

From: Increased peri-ductal collagen micro-organization may contribute to raised mammographic density

Fig. 3

Relationship between mammographic density and amorphous and fibrillar collagen contents. a Masson’s trichrome staining (amorphous collagen: blue/green, epithelial tissue: blue/black). Bold numbers denote Volpara score®, anonymous patient identifiers are reported in parentheses. b, Serial paraffin sections stained with Picrosirius red (PSR) and visualised by polarised light microscopy. Note that the boxed regions (a) correspond to the areas corresponding to the enlarged PSR regions in b. For each patient, three regions of the tissue shown in a were analysed in more detail by PSR staining and by Masson’s trichrome staining. However for clarity, only one region is shown in a and b. c Amorphous collagen content as visualized by Masson’s trichrome staining was not correlated with mammographic density (MD). Note that for the quantitative data provided (c and d), we analysed (as above) three regions of tissue for each sample, though for clarity only one region is shown in a. d Fibrillar collagen content was significantly correlated with MD. e, f Polarised light microscopy of PSR-stained sections assessed using OrientationJ: e low MD, f high MD. Colour is indicative of fibre alignment. g Coherency of organised fibrillar collagen was significantly increased in high MD (0.38 % ± 0.11) compared to low MD (0.21 % ± 0.11, p <0.001, n =18)

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