Figure 3: Histological cross-sections of the human tissue-engineered, characterization of the ECM and mechanical properties of vesical equivalents. A: Samples stained with Masson’s trichrome show urothelial cells (purple) firmly anchored to the underlying stroma composed of ECM (blue) of the ASC and Fb constructions. Scale bars: 100 μm B: Expression of type I and III collagens. Scale bars: 100 μm C: Stromal thickness of the Fb was found to be significantly smaller than for ASC in presence of urothelial cells. The UTS of the Fb group was significantly higher compared to the ASC. The failure strains were not significantly different between the two constructions. Tests were performed using 3 different cellular populations (N) for Fbs and ASCs and each construct was produced in triplicate (n). Each column represents mean +/-standard error of the mean, with p<0.05 indicating significance (*p<0.05, ** p<0.005).