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Histopathology Procedures: From Tissue Sampling to Histopathological Evaluation

Protocol
First Online:
Part of the Methods in Molecular Biology book series (MIMB, volume 691)

Abstract

Histological procedures aim to provide good quality sections that can be used for a light microscopic evaluation of human or animal tissue changes in either spontaneous or induced diseases. Routinely, tissues are fixed with neutral formalin 10%, embedded in paraffin, and then manually sectioned with a microtome to obtain 4–5 μm-thick paraffin sections. Dewaxed sections are then stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) or can be used for other purposes (special stains, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, etc.). During this process, many steps and procedures are critical to ensure standard and interpretable sections. Key recomendations are given here to achieve this objective.

Key words

Histology Embedding Sectioning Staining Histological slides 
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Disposition, Safety and Animal Researchsanofi-aventis R&DVitry-sur-SeineFrance
  2. 2.Human Histopathology and Animal Models UnitInstitut PasteurParisFrance

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