ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC OBSERVATION ON THE PARAFFIN OR CELLOIDIN-PARAFFIN EMBEDDED SECTIONS FROM SURGICAL AND AUTOPSY MATERIALS

Abstract

It is very difficult to utilize a specific electron microscopic method for all cases in the routine examination of surgical and autopsy materials. The utilization of paraffin embedded material for electron microscopy has already been described by Zeitoun and Lehy but finer cytological details are difficult to distinguish by their method. The present method is possible to preserve the ultrastructure well by a more simple procedures, in which the paraffin or celloidin-paraffin embedded tissue is mounted on an epoxy resin slide instead of glass slide, embedded in epoxy resin through deparaffinization, dehydration, staining, post-fixation with osmium tetroxide, and sampling of the area to be chosen for electron microscopy is made under a light microscope. The precise selected region can be easily ultrathin sectioned and electron micrographs taken. Through this procedure, the virus particles with a nucleoid core are observed in the cytomegalic inclusion bodies of salivary gland and the tumor cells of giant cell tumor of tendon sheath can be divided into two main types; one richly endowed with rough endoplasmic reticulum and the other containing many mitochondria. This method is useful for obtaining ultrastructural informations for the examination of difficult diagnostic cases in the surgical and autopsy pathology.