Observations of animal tissues and developing chick embryos by newly developed a hand-made preparation with the embedding medium for frozen tissue specimens.

Abstract

In contrast with the many activities using plant tissues, there have been few experimental studies that observed the animal tissues in the biology class in high schools, and early-grades of college. In the present experiment, a brief and simple method was developed using both an embedding medium for frozen tissue specimens and a broccoli stem as their holder. Before the usage, the water in stems of broccoli were replaced with 20 % ethanol to prevent freezing. Some organs of the mice (C57BL and ICR strains) and chick embryos were fixed with 10 % formalin in phosphate buffered saline. The samples frozen with the embedding medium in the broccoli stem has been sectionned with a razor-blade by hand. The tissue structures of the testis, the kidney, the cerebrum, the cerebellum, the lung and the small intestine, as well as chick embryos could be observed with the slide prepared for a microscope by the present method. Thus, it was shown that the present method was good for the biology class of high schools.