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Updated: Mar 12, 2026
Tissue Preparation and Immunostaining of Mouse Craniofacial Tissues and Undecalcified Bone
Published on: May 10, 2019
Microwave-Assisted Tissue Preparation for Rapid Fixation, Decalcification, Antigen Retrieval, Cryosectioning, and
1Laboratory of Human Anatomy and Cell Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Tsukuba University of Technology, 4-12-7 Kasuga, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8521, Japan.
Abstract:
Microwave irradiation of tissue during fixation and subsequent histochemical staining procedures significantly reduces the time required for incubation in fixation and staining solutions. Minimizing the incubation time in fixative reduces disruption of tissue morphology, and reducing the incubation time in staining solution or antibody solution decreases nonspecific labeling. Reduction of incubation time in staining solution also decreases the level of background noise. Microwave-assisted tissue preparation is applicable for tissue fixation, decalcification of bone tissues, treatment of adipose tissues, antigen retrieval, and other special staining of tissues. Microwave-assisted tissue fixation and staining are useful tools for histological analyses. This review describes the protocols using microwave irradiation for several essential procedures in histochemical studies, and these techniques are applicable to other protocols for tissue fixation and immunostaining in the field of cell biology.
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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...
01:20Preparation of Samples for Electron Microscopy