Fig. 4

Histologic and immunohistochemical assessments of diabetic mucosal wound healing at days 7 and 28. A Representative images of Masson’s trichrome staining. Magnification: 40 × . Scale bar: 250 µm. B Representative images of immunohistochemical staining for cytokeratin-10 (K-10). Magnification: 100 × . Scale bar: 100 µm. C The ratio of proliferating cells (PCNA( +) cells) in the mucosal wound. D The histologic healing condition was categorized into three levels: incomplete epithelization (level 1), complete epithelization with epithelial cleft or reduced connective tissue thickness (level 2), and complete epithelization with normal consistency (level 3). Dashed lines indicate the edge of mucosal wounds. There is no downstream processing or averaging to adjust the resolution of the microscopic images. (Among groups with diabetes, significant difference compared to DB-CL: ^*p < 0.05, ^**p < 0.01, ^***p < 0.001)