A new embedding and sectioning technique (macrovibratome) for macroscopic and morphometric examinations especially of...

The macrovibratome is a newly developed sectioning apparatus designed especially for the preparation of human brain material subject to macroscopic and morphometric examinations. The brain is embedded in an aqueous agar solution and cut into slices with a minimum thickness of 2 mm. Using a 20% or 40% gelatin solution as the embedding material results in an average shrinkage of the tissue blocks of 9.8 or 31.7% in volume, respectively. With a 3% agar solution the volume shrinkage lies on the average at 1.0% for smaller brain pieces and 4.5% for cerebra.