Scanscope xt scanner

The mice were euthanized and cutaneous tissue from the irradiated area was harvested at weeks 9 and 17 post‐irradiation. The circular piece of irradiated tissue was cut in half with the anterior half used for histology and the posterior half used for gene expression analysis (see Gene Expression below). Control skin which was not irradiated or treated with vehicle or PBM was harvested from the abdomen of the mice. After harvesting, the skin was placed on an index card, fixed in 10% neutral‐buffered formalin, and processed for hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and Masson's trichrome staining using standard histological techniques. Both the H&E and Masson's trichrome stained slides were then digitally captured using a Scanscope XT scanner (Leica, Wetzlar, Germany). To measure collagen deposition, measurements of skin thickness in the irradiated area were performed. Images of the trichrome‐stained slides were processed using ImageJ (v1.49v, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD). Each tissue section was divided into 10 equal sections and measurements of the four central sections were obtained to exclude edge artifacts from histologic processing. The measurements were performed at 4× magnification and included from the dermal‐subcutaneous interface to the external surface of the epidermis.