L3: Preservation of

Tissues

HISTOPATHOLOGY I
HIS 1213


Definition of fixation

Effects of fixatives on tissue

The ideal fixative

 How long can you keep following foods?

 Acar (few months ?)
 Kimchi (few months ?)
 kiam chai (years ?)
Preserved foods can be kept longer, agree?

Definition of fixation
FIXATION
preservation and hardening of a tissue sample
to retain as nearly as possible the same
relations they had in the living body.

Effects of fixation
Advantages:
Minimizing the loss or cellular or extracellular
molecules due to the destruction of enzyme
Maintaining macromolecular structures
Protecting tissues from the destruction by
microorganisms.

 Prevent losses of tissue constituents into

processing and staining solution.
 Reduce postmortem morphological
changes of the tissue.

 Disadvantages:
Swelling or shrinkage of tissues during the
process
Color variations in various histochemical stains
Produce some artifacts in the appearance of
tissue on staining.
Sample could not be used for molecular
analysis (most of the fixative)

The ideal fixative

Characteristics of ideal fixative are:
1.Support high quality after storage of the
paraffin blocks for at least a decade.
2.The fixative must have the ability to prevent
short and long term destruction of the microarchitecture of the tissue (autolysis induced by
enzymes)

3.The fixative is able destruct infectious agents

in order to maintain tissue and cellular
integrity.
4.It is important for the fixative to have good
toxicological and flammability profile that
permit the safe use of the fixative.
5.The ideal fixative should also permit the
recovery of macromolecules including
proteins, mRNA, DNA without extensive
biochemical modifications