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Scanning Electron Microscopy of Macerated Tissue to Visualize the Extracellular Matrix
- Source :
- Journal of Visualized Experiments.
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- MyJove Corporation, 2016.
-
Abstract
- Fibrosis is a component of all forms of heart disease regardless of etiology, and while much progress has been made in the field of cardiac matrix biology, there are still major gaps related to how the matrix is formed, how physiological and pathological remodeling differ, and most importantly how matrix dynamics might be manipulated to promote healing and inhibit fibrosis. There is currently no treatment option for controlling, preventing, or reversing cardiac fibrosis. Part of the reason is likely the sheer complexity of cardiac scar formation, such as occurs after myocardial infarction to immediately replace dead or dying cardiomyocytes. The extracellular matrix itself participates in remodeling by activating resident cells and also by helping to guide infiltrating cells to the defunct lesion. The matrix is also a storage locker of sorts for matricellular proteins that are crucial to normal matrix turnover, as well as fibrotic signaling. The matrix has additionally been demonstrated to play an electromechanical role in cardiac tissue. Most techniques for assessing fibrosis are not qualitative in nature, but rather provide quantitative results that are useful for comparing two groups but that do not provide information related to the underlying matrix structure. Highlighted here is a technique for visualizing cardiac matrix ultrastructure. Scanning electron microscopy of decellularized heart tissue reveals striking differences in structure that might otherwise be missed using traditional quantitative research methods.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
Pathology
medicine.medical_specialty
Heart disease
Swine
Cardiac fibrosis
General Chemical Engineering
Basic Protocol
Matrix (biology)
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Extracellular matrix
Mice
03 medical and health sciences
Cell Movement
Fibrosis
medicine
Animals
Humans
Decellularization
General Immunology and Microbiology
Myocardium
General Neuroscience
medicine.disease
Extracellular Matrix
030104 developmental biology
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
Ultrastructure
Signal transduction
Cardiomyopathies
Signal Transduction
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 1940087X
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Visualized Experiments
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....2a77957253ddd3a53817d629a3275a58