“…In research, sometimes only the application of special staining is mentioned, suggesting that the purpose is to facilitate fibrosis assessment [ 22 , 48 , 49 ]. Among the specific staining for connective tissue, Masson trichrome staining (MT) [ 43 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 ], picrosirius red staining (PSR) [ 15 , 18 , 35 , 58 , 59 , 60 ], Gomori trichrome staining (GT) [ 61 , 62 ], elastica van Gieson staining (EVG) [ 4 , 63 , 64 ], Azan staining [ 65 ], resorcin–fuchsin staining (RF) [ 65 ], periodic acid–Schiff staining (PAS) [ 4 , 52 , 65 , 66 ], and, in highly specific way, IHC [ 6 , 16 , 51 , 60 , 67 ], may be utilized for enhancing the histological visualization of connective tissue in light microscopy. Although electron microscopy is a more expensive technique, it may be employed for the evaluation of smaller structures in ECM or cellular degeneration in fibrosis studies; thus, methylene-blue-azur2-basic fuchsin staining (MBABF) on semi-thin slices for area selection [ 35 ], uranyl acetate–lead citrate staining (UALC) [ 4 , 35 , 64 ], and gold-coating [ 64 , 66 ] can be used.…”