The Natural History of Uterine Leiomyomas: Light and Electron Microscopic Studies of Fibroid Phases, Interstitial Ischemia, Inanosis, and Reclamation
Figure 1
Intrafascicular and interfascicular fibrosis. (a) Masson’s trichrome stain of normal myometrium for comparison with (b) Phase 3 fibroid, also stained with Masson’s trichrome, which stains muscle red and collagen blue. Note that in the myometrium (a) most of the blue staining collagen is between the fascicles (interfascicular) (arrow), whereas blue collagenous stroma in the fibroid is also noted between the individual myocytes of the muscle fascicles (intrafascicular fibrosis) (arrow), without the interposition of fibroblasts, indicating that the collagenous stroma is being produced by the myocytes themselves. In addition, the interfascicular blue collagenous stroma (asterisk) is more abundant in the fibroid (b) than in the myometrium (a). Red staining cells within the interfascicular stroma of the fibroid (arrowhead) probably represent transformed myocytes, or fibroblasts. Original objective magnification of (a) and (b): 10x.
