Skip to main content

Effects of Fixation on Tissues

  • Protocol
Prostate Cancer Methods and Protocols

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Medicineā„¢ ((MIMM,volume 81))

  • 1329 Accesses

Abstract

The primary aim of tissue fixation is to preserve tissue in the long term, ideally without causing alterations in morphology or biochemical integrity. Optimal fixation should therefore inhibit autolysis while preserving enzyme activity and antigen reactivity. However, some of these requirements are mutually exclusive. For example, to stop autolysis, proteolytic enzymes must be inhibited (1). At present, it is not possible to find a fixation technique that fulfils all of these criteria.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Protocol
USD 49.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Asplund, M. and Brunk, U. (1975) Osmotiska forhallen under aldehydfixering. Laboratoriet 9, 1ā€“11.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  2. Fox, C. H., Johnson, F. B., Whiting, J., and Roller P. P. (1985) Formaldehyde fixation. J. Histochem. Cytochem. 33, 845ā€“853.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  3. Bancroft, J. D. and Stevans, A. (1999) Theory & Practice of Histological Techniques 4th ed, Churchill Livingstone, New York.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  4. Walker, J. F. (1964) Formaldehyde, in American Chemical Society Monograph Series, 3rd ed., Reinhold, New York.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  5. Feldman, M. Y. (1973) Reactions of nucleic acids and nucleoproteins with formaldehyde. Prog. Nucleic Acid Res. Mol. Biol. 13, 1ā€“49.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  6. Ruijter, E. T., Miller, G., Aalders, T. W., Van De Kaa, C. A., Schalken, J. A., Debruyne, F. M., et al. (1997) Rapid microwave-stimulated fixation of entire prostatectomy specimens J. Pathol. 183, 369ā€“375.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  7. Baak, J. P. A. (1991) Manual of Quantitative Pathology in Cancer Diagnosis and Prognosis, Springer-Verlag, Berlin and Heidelberg.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  8. Taylor, C. R., Shi, S. R., and Cote, R. J. (1996) Antigen retrieval for immunohistochemistry. Status and need for greater standardization. Appl. Immunohistochem. 4, 144ā€“166.

    CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  9. Shi, S.-R., Imam A., Young, L., Cote, R. J., and Taylor C. R. (1995) Antigen retrieval immunohistochemistry under influence of pH using monoclonal antibodies J. Histochem. Cytochem. 43, 193ā€“201.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  10. Shi, S.-R., Cote, R. J., and Taylor C. R. (1997) Antigen retrieval immunohisto-chemistry: Past, present and the future. J. Histochem. Cytochem. 45, 327ā€“343.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  11. Shi, S.-R., Cote, R. J., Young, L. L., and Taylor, C. R. (1997) Antigen retrieval immunohistochemistry: Practice and development. J. Histotechnology 20, 145ā€“154.

    CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  12. Pileri, S. A., Roncandor, G., Ceccarelli, C., Piccioli, M., Briskomatis, A., Sabbatini, E., et al. (1997) Antigen retrieval techniques in immunohistochemistry: Comparison of different methods. J. Pathol. 183, 116ā€“123.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  13. Leong, A. S. Y. and Gilham, P. N. (1989) The effects of progressive formaldehyde fixation on the preservation of tissue antigens. Pathology 21, 266ā€“268.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  14. Login, G. R., Schnitt, S. J., and Dovrak, A. M. (1987) Rapid microwave fixation of human tissues for light microscopic immunoperoxidase identification of diagnostically useful antigens. Lab. Invest. 57, 585ā€“591.

    PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  15. Cohen, R. J., McNeal, J. E., Meehan, K., and Wilce, M. (2000) Luminal contents of benign and malignant prostatic glands: Correspondence to altered secretory mechanisms. Hum. Pathol. 32, 94ā€“101.

    ArticleĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  16. Cohen, R. J. and Beales, M. (2000) Prostate secretory granules in normal and neoplastic prostate glands: A diagnostic aid to needle biopsy. Hum. Pathol. 31, 1515ā€“1519.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  17. Cohen, R. J., Fischer, G., and McNeal, J. E. (2001) Immunostains after gluteraldehyde-based tissue fixation. Hum. Pathol. 32, 242ā€“243.

    PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  18. Arnold, M. M., Srivastava, S., Fredenburgh, J., Stockard, C. R., Myers, R. B., and Grizzle, W. E. (1996) Effects of fixation and tissue processing on immunohistochemical demonstration of specific antigens. Biotech. Histochem. 71, 224ā€“230.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  19. Gillespie, J. W., Best, C. J. M., Bichel, V. E., Cole, K. A., Greenhut, S. F., Hewitt, S. M., et al. (2002) Evaluation of non-formalin tissue fixation for molecular profiling studies. Am. J. Pathol. 160, 449ā€“457.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  20. Russell, P. and Farnsworth, A. (1997) Examination of the ovarian specimen, in Surgical Pathology of the Ovaries (Russell, P. and Farnsworth, A., eds.), Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, pp. 25ā€“37.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  21. Goelz, S. E., Hamilton, S. R., and Vogelstein, B. (1985) Purification of DNA from formaldehyde fixed and paraffin embedded human tissue. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 130, 118ā€“126.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  22. Dubeau L., Chandler, L. A., Gralow, J. R., Nichols, P. W., and Jones, P. A. (1986) Southern blot analysis of DNA extracted from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded pathology specimens. Cancer Res. 46, 2964ā€“2969.

    PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  23. Wong, A. J., Ruppert, J. M., Eggelston, J., Hamilton, S. R., Baylin, S. B., and Vogelstein, B. (1986) Gene amplification of c-myc and N-myc in small cell carcinoma of the lung. Science 233, 461ā€“464.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  24. Tsuda, H., Shimosato, Y., Upton, M. P., Yokota, J., Tereda, M., Okira, M., et al. (1988) Retrospective study on amplification of N-myc and c-myc genes in pediatric solid tumors and its association with prognosis and tumor differentiation. Lab. Invest. 59, 321ā€“327.

    PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  25. Mies, C., Houldsworth, J., and Changanti, R. S. K. (1991) Extraction of DNA from paraffin blocks for Southern blot analysis. Am. J. Surg. Pathol. 15, 169ā€“174.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  26. Park, J. S., Leake, J. F., Sharma, B. K., Toki, T., Kessis, T. O., Ambros, R. A., et al. (1991) Variability in beta-globin and HPV DNA amplification by PCR from fixed tissues. Mod. Pathol. 4, 667ā€“670.

    PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  27. Honma, M., Ohara, Y., Murayama, H., Saho, K., and Ivasali, Y. (1993) Effects of fixation and varying target length on the sensitivity of polymerase chain reaction for detection of human T-cell leukemia virus type I proviral DNA in formalin-fixed tissue sections. J. Clin. Microbiol. 31, 1799ā€“1803.

    PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  28. Stanta, G. and Schneider, C. (1991) RNA extracted from paraffin-embedded human tissue is amenable to analysis of PCR amplification. Biotechniques 11, 304ā€“408.

    PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  29. Woodall, C. J., Watt, N. J., and Clements, G. B. (1993) Simple technique for detecting RNA viruses by PCR in single sections of wax embedded tissue. J. Clin. Pathol. 46, 276ā€“277.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  30. Hilton, D. A., Variend, S., and Pringle, J. H. (1993) Demonstration of coxackie virus RNA in formalin-fixed tissue sections from childhood myocarditis cases by in situ hybridization and the polymerase chain reaction. J. Pathol. 170, 45ā€“51.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  31. Akyol, G., Dash, S., Shieh, Y. S., Malter, J. S., and Gerber, M. A. (1992) Detection of hepatitis C virus RNA sequences by polymerase chain reaction in fixed live tissue. Mod. Pathol. 5, 501ā€“504.

    PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  32. Jackson, D. P., Quirke, P., Lewis, F., Boylston, A.W., Sloan, J. M., Robertson, D., and Taylor, J. R. (1989) Detection of measles virus RNA in paraffin-embedded tissue (letter). Lancet 1, 1391.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  33. Redline, R. W., Genest, D., and Tycko B. (1991) Detection of enteroviral infection in paraffin-embedded tissue by the RNA polymerase chain reaction technique. Am. J. Clin. Pathol. 96, 568ā€“571.

    PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  34. Navas, S., Castillo, I., and Carreno, V. (1993) Detection of plus and minus HCV RNA in normal liver of anti-HCV-positive patients (Letter). Lancet 341, 904ā€“905.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  35. Bramwell, N. H. and Burns B. F. (1988) The effect of fixative type and fixation time on the quantity and quality of extractable DNA for hybridization studies on lymphoid tissue. Exp. Hematol. 16, 730ā€“732.

    PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  36. Rogatch, H., Moser, P., Volgger, H., Horninger, W., Bartsch, G., Mikuz, G., et al. (2000) Diagnostic effect of an improved pre-embedding method of prostate needle biopsy specimen. Hum. Pathol. 31, 1102ā€“1107.

    ArticleĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  37. Egevad, L., Engstrom, K., and Busch, C. (1998) A new method for handling radical prostatectomies enabling fresh tissue harvesting, whole mount sections, and landmarks for alignment of sections. J. Urol. Pathol. 9, 17ā€“26.

    ArticleĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  38. Church, R. J., Hand, N. M., Rex, M., and Scotting, P. J. (1997) Non-isotopic in situ hybridisation to detect Sox gene mRNA in plastic-embedded tissue. Histochem. J. 29, 625ā€“629.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  39. Warren, K. C., Coyne, K. J., Waite, J. H., and Cary, S. C. (1998) Use of methacrylate de-embedding protocols for in situ hybridisation on semithin plastic sections with multiple detection strategies. J. Histochem. Cytochem. 46, 149ā€“155.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  40. McCluggage, W. G., Roddy, S., Whiteside, C., Burton, J., McBride, H., Maxwell, P., et al. (1995) Immunohistochemical staining of plastic embedded bone marrow trephine biopsy specimens after microwave heating. J. Clin. Pathol. 48, 840ā€“844.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  41. Brown, R. S., Edwards, J., Bartlett, J. W., Jones, C., and Dogan, A. (2002) Routine acid decalcification of bone marrow samples can preserve DNA for FISH and CGH studies in metastatic prostate cancer. J. Histochem. Cytochem. 5, 113ā€“116.

    ArticleĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  42. Alers, J. C., Krijtenburg, P.-J., Vissers, K. J., and van Dekken, H. (1999) Effect of bone decalcification procedures on DNA in situ hybridisation and comparative genomic hybridisation: EDTA is highly preferable to a routinely used acid decalcifier. J. Histochem. Cytochem. 47, 703ā€“709.

    ArticleĀ  PubMedĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  43. Lebeau, A., Muthmann, H., Sendelhofert, A., Diebold, J., and Lohrs, U. (1995) Histochemistry and immunohistochemistry on bone marrow biopsies. A rapid procedure for methyl methacrylate embedding. Pathol. Res. Practice 191, 121ā€“129.

    ArticleĀ  CASĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

Ā© 2003 Humana Press Inc.

About this protocol

Cite this protocol

Mortensen, E., Brown, J.M. (2003). Effects of Fixation on Tissues. In: Russell, P.J., Jackson, P., Kingsley, E.A. (eds) Prostate Cancer Methods and Protocols. Methods in Molecular Medicineā„¢, vol 81. Springer, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-372-0:163

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-372-0:163

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Totowa, NJ

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-89603-978-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-372-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

Publish with us

Policies and ethics