Different healing process of esophageal large mucosal defects by endoscopic mucosal dissection between with and without steroid injection in an animal model

Table 1 Quantiative pathological findings in relation to the time course

	Steroid injection			Steroid injection
	(−)			(+)
	Immediately after	1 week after	3 weeks after	8 weeks after
	ESD	ESD	ESD	ESD
	(n=5)	(n=7)	(n=2)	(n=5)
Ulcer size evaluated as distance between desmin-positive muscularis mucosa edges (cm, mean±SD)	1.38±0.22	1.54±0.23	0.80±0.14	0.78±0.11
Largest thickness of SMA-positive myofibroblastic cell bundles (μm, mean±SD)	0*	297±70.5	1,156±283	341±216
Thickness of proper muscle layer (μm, mean±SD)	1,231±112	1,444±123	584±218	NA**

SMA: α-smooth muscle actin; SD: standard deviation; NA: not applicable.
“n” means the number of preparations that were made from the esophagus of each pig.
*no SMA-positive myofibroblastic cells identified.
**The muscular layer was disrupted, which made the measurement difficult.