Abstract

HERNANDEZ-CHAVARRIA, Francisco; VARGAS-MONTERO, Maribel; RIVERA, Patricia  and  CARRANZA, Alfonso. Un método rápido de reprocesamiento para microscopia electrónica de cortes histológicos en parafina. Rev. costarric. cienc. méd [online]. 2001, vol.22, n.1-2, pp.51-56. ISSN 0253-2948.

A simple and rapid method is described for re-processing of light microscopy paraffin sections to observe they under transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The paraffin-embedded tissue is sectioned and deparaffinized in toluene; then exposed to osmium vapor under microwave irradiation using a domestic microwave oven. The tissues were embedded in epoxy resin, polymerized and ultrathin sectioned. The method requires a relatively short time (about 30 minutes for TEM and 15 for SEM), and produces a reasonable quality of the ultrastructure for diagnostic purposes.

Keywords : Paraffin embedded tissues; scanning electron microscopy; transmission electron microscopy.