15. HEROVICI’S STAINING: A USEFUL DIFFERENTIAL STAINING METHOD FOR EVALUATING COLLAGEN DISTRIBUTION IN BIOMATERIAL-MEDIATED HERNIA REPAIR

Natural biomaterials are gaining momentum in tissue engineering because of many reported cases of recurrence in ventral hernia, repaired with synthetic mesh materials. Collagen is the main component of the extracellular matrix of the abdominal wall and their distribution and ratio alter during hernia formation. Therefore, a differential staining method for evaluating collagen distribution after biomaterial implantation known as Herovici’s polychrome staining was employed in this study. Here, abdominal wall defects were created in rat models (six animals/ group) and grafted with jejunum-derived scaffold (JDS) and a reference material, Surgisis (C-SIS) scaffold. The implanted scaffold samples were retrieved at 4 weeks post-implantation and subjected to Herovici’s staining. Data analysis revealed a significant (p<0.05) and favorable type I: III collagen ratio in C-SIS group compared to JDS group. This study shows Herovici’s staining to be a better differential stain that can be usedfor studying the efficacy of newly introduced biomaterial for ventral hernia repair in human and veterinary patients.

Keywords: Biomaterials, ventral hernia repair,  Collagen, Herovici’s staining