Modification of the Liquid Used in Spreading Polystyrene Embedded Sections

Abstract

The new method of embedding histological specimens in polystyrene (Frangioni and Borgioli 1979) prescribes spreading and mounting the embedded sections on slides using a 10% paraldehyde solution on a hot plate set at 80 C; time required about 10 min. During this operation, analogous to that used for paraffin mounts (including the use of Mayer's albumen), sections rich in connective tissue or particularly hard often cannot be adequately spread due to the rapidity with which the paraldehyde solution evaporates. This disadvantage, which results in opacity where the mounted sections have not adhered to the slide, can be eliminated by modifying the solution as follows: