Polarized light images of three representative aortic valve leaflets.

<p>Images of three representative leaflets (left) along with traces of the major fiber bundles (right) to clarify primary structures of the leaflets. Fiber bundles appear yellow-orange and membranes appear blue as a result of the use of transmitted elliptically polarized light imaging. Clear differences in the fiber bundle arrangement were shown in the three leaflets. The left leaflet was the most asymmetric, while the non-coronary and right leaflets were more symmetric. Fiber bundles were most distinct at the edge (root) and branched or spread out towards the belly of the leaflet. Overall, fiber bundles appeared to present a cross-hatched, overlapping structure with thin connecting membranes. The yellow boxes identify the regions presented in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0086087#pone-0086087-g008" target="_blank">Figures 8</a> and <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0086087#pone-0086087-g012" target="_blank">12</a>.