Figure 2

The normal-appearing rectal mucosa from 2008 is shown. A small part of the muscular mucosal layer is indicated by the arrowhead at the right side of the low-magnified image. In contrast, extensive collagen band thickening could be seen in the rectal biopsies (arrowhead in the high-magnified image of the sub-epithelium beneath a vertically-cut crypt). Of note, amyloidosis was excluded with special staining (results not shown).