Collagen Fibril Analysis in Tumor Tissues

Tumor samples were taken from the tumor periphery and were fixed and processed as previously described [33 (link)]. A JEM-1230 Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) (Jeol, Tokyo, Japan) was used to measure the diameter and organization of the collagen fibrils, and images from four to six different areas of the tissue were analyzed. Pictures were captured at × 100,000 magnification and analyzed using Image J 1.46 (National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD., USA) to measure the fibril diameter. To investigate the organization of the collagen fibrils, pictures were captured at × 30,000 magnification and scored from one to four considering collagen fibril organization and alignment within the collagen fibers.
A JSM-7400F Scanning Electron microscope (Jeol) was used to study the tumor collagen fibril scaffold architecture. Five images from different areas of the tumor were captured from each tumor at × 10,000 magnification.