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Comparative Study of Microwave Oven-Assisted Tissue-Processing with Xylene and Xylene Substitutes on Morphological Quality of Tissue Sections
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| Author:
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DURRGASHNINI A/P VISVA NATHAN, SAINT NWAY AYE, PURUSHOTHAM KRISHNAPPA, RASHINDRA RAVINDRAN
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| Abstract:
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Background: Tissue-processing is the key step to many histopathology techniques. Xylene, the most commonly used clearing reagent in tissue-processing is associated with health concerns due to its toxicity in long-term exposure. The usage of n-Heptane has been proposed in this study as substitute for xylene.
Methods: This study used 40 tissue blocks of rat skeletal muscle that was formalin-fixed. Two batches of 20 tissue blocks were processed in a microwave oven with xylene and n-Heptane, respectively. The processed blocks were then sectioned and stained with Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E). The slides were scored from 0 to 2 based on the parameters of nuclear, cytoplasm and staining characteristics.
Results: The overall score for slides of tissues processed with xylene were 2 (100%). However, the scores of tissues processed with n-Heptane were relatively comparable as 40% scored 1 and 60% scored 2. The cytoplasmic and nuclear staining, nuclear-cytoplasmic contrast and crisp staining for tissue sections processed with n-Heptane were comparable to sections processed with xylene.
Conclusion: n-Heptane is a safer and less toxic xylene substitute. Thus, it can be concluded that n-Heptane can be used for microwave tissue-processing without affecting nuclear and cytoplasmic details, and staining quality of tissue sections.
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| Keyword:
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Microwave oven, Tissue-processing, Clearing agent, Xylene, n-Heptane.
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| EOI:
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| DOI:
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https://doi.org/10.31838/ijpr/2021.13.03.032
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| Download:
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