Fixation and Decalcification are the common technique for technicians to preparations of patient or other samples. Both process are important for further diagnostics and clinical test. After processing fixation, the sample will become favor to support the high quality and consistent staining with H&E and for the long-term storage of paraffin blocks. Decalcification is specific for obtaining satisfactory paraffin sections of bone. The dense collagen of cortical bone become obviously tough via removing inorganic calcium from the organic collagen matrix, calcified cartilage and surrounding tissues.
Principle:
Principle of Fixation
Fixation is the by the constituents of cells and tissue are fixed in a physical and chemical state so that its will withstand subsequent treatment with …show more content…
the area of bloody surface remained is similar with formol saline and more than acetic acid.
Discussion / Questions:
Q1: Briefly suggest and explain the factors that influence the rate of decalcification.
The performance of decalcification is affected by several factor.
Choices of decalcifer
Some of the decalcifier are used for urgency case to accelerate the speed of decalcifier. For example, hydrochloric acid (HCl) is strong acid which act as rapid decalcifier with extremely low pH. It can rapidly removed inorganic calcium from the bone. Some chelating reagent like EDTA (at pH 7.0 - 7.4) is neutral hence it requires longer time to carry out the process.
2. Degree of mineralization
Some of the sample like mucopolysaccharides in new bone, calcifying cartilage or glycogen in some early osteoblast contain abundant mineral especially calcium. When undergoing decalcification, those samples require longer turnaround time.
Q2: Have you identify any difference inside the tissues that were fixed by difference fixatives ? Can you explain the difference that you have observed ?
Processing with 10% formol