Advantages of Sirius Red Staining for Quantitative Morphometric Collagen Measurements in Lungs
- 1 January 1995
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Informa UK Limited in Experimental Lung Research
- Vol. 21 (1), 67-77
- https://doi.org/10.3109/01902149509031745
Abstract
Sirius Red staining is presented as a method for collagen determination, enabling quantitative morphometric measurements to be performed in locally defined tissue areas. The advantage of this method is especially shown for alveolar lung tissue. By excluding the bronchial areas in the tissue sections, the differences in the degree of fibrosis proved to be more discrete after different loads of quartz dust than by any other method. The difference of 12 micrograms collagen measured colorimetrically represented a 1.2-fold increase. The collagen measured in the alveolar tissue by the morphometric method rose from 9.8 to 28.6%. This is a 2.9-fold increase, underlining the vast improvement in sensitivity. Thus, this method is specifically suitable for the evaluation of very small fibrotic lesions. The quartz doses given are particularly low compared to most other investigations. Histologic lung and lymph node sections from female Wistar rats injected intratracheally with differing quantities of quartz dust (0.03, 0.1, 0.5, 1.75 mg) were stained with Sirius Red, and the collagen fibers measured with a quantitative image analysis. The results for lymph nodes using different methods (wet weight determination, quantitative measurement of quartz typical areas, colorimetric and morphometric collagen determination) showed a high correlation at the different doses. This showed that the morphometric method is suitable for the quantitative measurement of collagen. Corresponding results were also found in the comparative lung tissue measurements (colorimetric and morphometric collagen determination). However, the morphometric method has the decisive advantage that measurements can be restricted to defined tissue areas and do not destroy the section.Keywords
This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit:
- Myocardial Fibrosis in the Rat With Mineralocorticoid Excess Prevention of Scarring by AmilorideAmerican Journal of Hypertension, 1993
- Liver fibrosis quantified by image analysis in methotrexate-treated patients with psoriasisJournal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 1993
- DNA synthesis in the non-infarcted cardiac interstitium after left coronary artery ligation in the rat: Effects of captoprilJournal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, 1991
- Reactive and reparative fibrillar collagen remodelling in the hypertrophied rat left ventricle: two experimental models of myocardial fibrosisCardiovascular Research, 1990
- Fibroblast Proliferation Induced by Silica-exposed Human Alveolar MacrophagesAmerican Review of Respiratory Disease, 1988
- Morphometric analysis of collagen network and plasma perfused capillary bed in the myocardium of rats during evolution of cardiac hypertrophyBasic Research in Cardiology, 1986
- A simple micromethod for collagen and total protein determination in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded sections.Journal of Histochemistry & Cytochemistry, 1985
- Demonstration of collagen in meat products by an improved picro-Sirius Red polarisation methodThe Analyst, 1984
- Alveolar Macrophage Stimulation and Population Changes in Silica-Exposed RatsChest, 1981
- Comparison of Sirius red and Congo red as stains for amyloid in animal tissues.Journal of Histochemistry & Cytochemistry, 1975