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sectioning. A variety of instruments are used to cut the sections and the
protocol depends on the application. In most cases the tissue
requires embedding in a medium, which allows thin sections to be cut
cleanly; most tissues for routine histology are embedded in wax blocks. This
requires that water is removed from the tissue and progressively replaced by
wax, which can be solidified later to make a tissue block suitable for
sectioning. The tissue is progressively dehydrated by immersing it in
successively higher concentrations of alcohol (ethanol), before transfer to
the organic solvent xylene and finally embedding in wax. Xylene is used at
the final stage because wax is soluble in xylene, but not alcohol, so the wax
can readily permeate the tissue. In a large pathology laboratory, much of this
tissue processing is automated in order to save time and to produce
consistent results.
A number of devices are available for cutting sections:
Tissues that come off the tissue processor are still in the cassettes and must be
manually put into the blocks by a technician who must pick the tissues out of the
cassette and pour molten paraffin over them. This "embedding" process is very
important, because the tissues must be aligned, or oriented, properly in the block of
paraffin.
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/science/biology/introductionhistology/content-section-2.2
Tissue embedding.
Tissue embedding.
Alternatives to paraffin embedding include various plastics that allow thinner sections.
Such plastics include methyl methacrylate, glycol methacrylate, araldite, and epon.
Methyl methacrylate is very hard and therefore good for embedding undecalcified bone.
Glycol methacrylate has the most widespread use since it is the easiest to work with.
Araldite is about the same as methacrylate, but requires a more complex embedding
process. Epon is routinely used for electron microscopy where very thin sections are
required.
Plastics require special reagents for deydration and clearing that are expensive. For this
reason, and because few tissues are plastic embedded, the processing is usually done
by hand. A special microtome is required for sectioning these blocks. Small blocks must
be made, so the technique lends itself to small biopsies, such as bone marrow or liver.
http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/HISTHTML/HISTOTCH/HISTOTCH.html