Staining of semithin tissue sections embedded in HPMA, quetol 523 and MMA

Various tissues fixed in a mixture of formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde, and embedded in an improved 2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate mixture were employed for studying the fine structures of cells and tissues by light microscopy. The embedding mixture contained Quetol 523 and methyl methacrylate as a plasticizer without a cross-linker. The catalyst was QCU-1. The mixture had a low viscosity, was easy to handle and penetrated readily and completely into the specimen, producing a homogeneous block from which it was easy to cut sections of 1-2 microns in thickness. A wide variety of stains have been employed with such sections and those reported here are hematoxylin-eosin, Azan and PAS. There was excellent preservation of alkaline phosphatase activity. A method of poststaining immunoperoxidase labeling was also applied to the mouse pancreas and examples of staining with insulin are included.