High concentration of reticular fibers in periurethral region of the prostatic urethra from patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia as revealed by stereology / Alta concentración de fibras reticulares en la región periuretral de la uretra prostática de pacientes con hiperplasia prostática benigna revelada por estereología

The goal of this investigation was to analyze and quantify changes of the reticular fibers in the prostatic urethra of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and compare with a control group. Prostatic urethra tissue samples were obtained from ten patients (age range 65 to 79 years, mean 66) with clinical symptoms of bladder outlet obstruction who had undergone open prostatectomy. The ten control group samples (urethral tissue samples from the transitional zone) were collected from prostates obtained during autopsy of accidental death adults of less than 25 years. The Vv of the reticular fibers was determined with stereologic methods from 25 random fields per sample using the point-count method with a M-42 grid test system. The quantitative data were analyzed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Mann-Whitney U tests. The Vv (mean+/-SD) in the control and BPH groups respectively were: 23.4+/- 1.8 and 30.3 +/- 1.2 (0.001). BPH cause significant increase of reticular fibers in prostatic urethra...

El objetivo de esta investigación fue analizar y cuantificar los cambios de las fibras reticulares en la uretra prostática de pacientes con hiperplasia prostática benigna (HPB) y compararlo con un grupo control. Muestras de tejido de uretra prostática se obtuvieron de diez pacientes (rango de edad 65 a 79 años, media 66) con síntomas clínicos de obstrucción del tracto urinario inferior que se habían sometido a prostatectomía abierta. Las diez muestras del grupo de control (muestras uretrales de tejido de la zona de transición) se obtuvieron de próstatas durante la autopsia de sujetos adultos con muerte accidental menores de 25 años. El Vv de las fibras reticulares se determinó con métodos estereológicos de 25 campos al azar por muestra utilizando el método de valor de conteo con el sistema M-42. Los datos cuantitativos se analizaron mediante la prueba de Kolmogorov-Smirnov y Mann-Whitney U. El Vv (media +/- DE) en el grupo control y BPH, respectivamente, fueron: 23,4 +/- 1,8 y 30,3 +/- 1,2 (0,001). La BPH causó aumento significativo de fibras reticulares en uretra prostática...

Reticulin morphometry and collagen fibers optical anisotropy as assessed by image analysis after silver impregnation

A new method for the impregnation of tissue sections with ammoniacal silver carbonate in terms of single-step reaction, no gold toning, no oxidation step and silver impregnation after treatment with pancreatic (alfa)-amylase is described. This method yields silver nanocrystalloids with 18.40 nm in average diameter [16]. Natural carbohydrate radicals probably acting as natural reducing agents for silver are assumed to occur. Despite the fact that the method is not specific, reticulin fibers (type III colagen) were clearly distinguished from other collagen fibers types and easily and accurately segmented by image analysis (IA) systems, when using this procedure. Data from myocardial reticulin fibers are presented. Collagen bundles (type I collagen rich structures) exhibited intense linear dichroism (LD) interms of gray averages measured by IA (non-impregnated, natural, collagen fibers do not show LD) Anomalous dispersion of birefringence was also detected, highlighting typical morphologies, including crimp, which allow us to propose the methodo for molecular order studies and to assess collagen bundles as chiral objects, especially together with LD data.