Altered collagen organization after OPN knockdown in wound sites. (A) Macroscopic views of scars of control- and OPN AS ODN–treated incisional wounds at 21 d after injury. *, wound edge. Images shown are representative of eight independent experiments. (B) Picrosirius red–stained sections of control- and OPN AS ODN–treated incisional wounds at 21 d. Representative of five independent experiments. High-magnification details from boxed areas indicated are differential interference contrast images. Arrowheads show wound edge. (C) TEM images of connective tissue from unwounded skin, control-, and AS ODN–treated 14 d wounds. Higher magnification insets illustrate differing collagen fibril diameters in these tissues. (D) Graphic representation of the mean diameter of collagen fibrils (± the SEM) from at least 5 fields of view of intact, unwounded skin, control ODN-, and OPN AS ODN–treated wounds; unwounded skin (striped bar, n = 200), control ODN (open bar, n = 300), OPN AS ODN (filled bar, n = 150). Bars: (B; low magnification) 100 μm; (B; high magnification) 25 μm; (C) 1 μm; (C, inset) 100 nm.