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Propylene Oxide: To Use or Not to Use in Biological Tissue Processing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

Jose A. Mascorro
Jose A. Mascorro*
Affiliation:
Tulane University Health Sciences Center
*
jmascor@tulane.edu.

Extract

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Propylene oxide (1,2-epoxy propane) has long been utilized as a transitional solvent in the preparation of biological tissues. This compound compound is completely miscible with the various epoxy resins utilized for infiltrating tissues. Ethanol, perhaps the most widely used dehydration agent, does not possess this characteristic and must be removed before the process of infiltration commences. It is common practice amongst biological microscopists to pass tissues for a few minutes through pure propylene oxide (PO) immediately prior to infiltration. The tissues then are pre-infiltrated with various proportions of PO and the embedding medium of choice. For example, one traditional recipe takes the tissues progressively from pure PO to 2:1 PO/resin, 1:1 PO/resin, and 1:2 PO/resin mixtures, with stays of a few minutes at eacil stage. A lengthy procedure such as tills probably is not necessary and has never been favored by this worker.

Type
Microscopy 101
Information
Microscopy Today , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , January 2004 , pp. 45
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2004

References

1. Glauert, A.M. and P.R., Lewis. Practical Methods in Electron Microscopy: Biological Specimen Preparation for Transmission Electron Microscopy, Volume 17, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1998.Google Scholar
2. Hayat, M.A. Principles and Techniques of Electron Microscopy, 3rd edition. CRC Press, Inc. Boca Raton, Florida, 1989.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.The author gratefully acknowledges Dr. Peter Schofield from Ladd Research, Inc for providing viscosity information.Google Scholar