Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 4, 2026
Paraffin Embedding and Thin Sectioning of Microbial Colony Biofilms for Microscopic Analysis
Published on: March 23, 2018
Fungal contamination of paraffin wax blocks in a pathology archive
K Müller1, C Ellenberger, H Aupperle
1Institute of Pathology, Veterinary Faculty, Universität Leipzig, Germany. kristin.mueller@vetmed.unileipzig.de
Abstract:
While searching for paraffin wax blocks for research purposes in our archive we detected numerous larval and some dead adult moths. Some wax blocks were riddled with a white-brown crumbling substance. The entire archive was checked and profoundly-infested blocks were separated from unaffected blocks. Mycological and parasitological investigations were performed. Fungi were identified by culture and polymerase chain reaction, which revealed high sequence homology to six different fungal species. The moths were determined to be Nemapogon personellus. A total of 8,484 wax blocks had to be removed from the archive and destroyed. Pathologists should be alerted to the importance of checking the humidity of the air where archival material is stored.
Related Concept Videos
01:03Fixation and Sectioning
The simplest type of preparation is the wet mount, in which the specimen is placed in a drop of liquid on the slide. A liquid specimen can be directly deposited on the slide using a dropper. Solid specimens, such as skin scraping, can be placed on the slide before adding a drop of liquid to prepare the wet mount. Sometimes the liquid is simply water, but stains are often added...
01:28Biodeterioration