Keywords
glutaraldehyde
paraformaldehyde
Bouin solution
transmission electron microscopy
How to Cite
Abstract
A comparative study on several fixatives used for Electron Microscopy (EM) and light microscopy (LM) procedure
was carried out in order to investigate the cellular structures preservation under Transmission Electron Microscopy.
Mouse liver fragments were fixed with diverse fixatives, three of them regularly employed for EM procedure (Karnovsky, glutaraldehyde, and paraformaldehyde), and two other fixatives used for LM methodology (commercial solution of formaldehyde, and Bouin solution). After primary fixation, all tissue fragments were post- fixed with osmium tetroxide and uranyl acetate. Then, the fragments were dehydrated, and embedded in Epon resin. Ultra - thin sections from Karnovsky- and glutaraldehyde- fixed tissues showed better preservation of cell structures and reduced extration of cellular components. The paraformaldehyde - fixed tissue presented poorer results than
glutaraldehyde fixation due to the presence of less cross linking; however that fixative has been useful in electron
cytochemical technique. Commercial formaldehyde solution and Bouin solution are the usual fixatives for LM but
they are unsuitable for EM. Their contents present a feature of coagulating proteins and to cause an extensive
extraction that induces a loss of cell constituents. Although all used fixatives rendered images with artifact, both
fixatives Karnovsky and glutaraldehyde showed best cell morphology preservation and similar results.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2004 Revista do Instituto Adolfo Lutz
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