Histological appearance and morphometry of Native, VP and CABG SV samples.

<p>(A-C) Low magnification of Masson’s trichrome staining of SV transversal sections. The lower pictures in each of the panels shows, respectively an example of the morphometric estimated parameters: direction of the radius measures used to determine the wall thickness (A), the luminal perimeter (B) and the area region considered for the determination of the cross-sectional area (C). (D) Quantification of wall thickness, luminal perimeter and cross sectional area changes in VP and CABG samples vs. Native. Data are expressed as fold change vs. Native (set to 1 in the graphs); * indicates P < 0.05 by Student’s paired t-test vs. Native (n = 6). (E) Determination of cell number by nuclei counting on histological sections showing that the arterial-like pressure determines a significant reduction in the cell number. Data are shown as cell number/mm². * indicates P < 0.05 by Student’s paired t-test vs. Native (n = 3). (F) Detection of TUNEL⁺ cells in Native, VP and CABG veins. (G) Quantification of TUNEL⁺ nuclei in the transversal sections of the SV samples. Statistical comparison by paired t-test (n = 3) did not show significant differences (ns).