A procedure for correcting the position of plant tissue samples in accidentally polymerized glycol methacrylate resin

• Main Author: Carlos André Espolador Leitão
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto de Botânica 2019-04-01
• Series: Hoehnea
• Subjects: embedding; histology; historesin; plant anatomy; technique in microscopy
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2236-89062019000100204&lng=en&tlng=en

ABSTRACT Glycol methacrylate resin is a very convenient medium used for inclusions of various types of tissue for histological and cytological studies. It provides excellent mechanical support in the sectioning of samples, even the ones with big differences in hardness. Additionally, it allows a large range of stain techniques and histochemical tests. During the infiltration stage, especially if it lasts for several days, the resin may be accidentally polymerized, which may give the impression that the sample has been lost. The present work aims to provide a technique for correcting the position of plant tissues samples embedded in accidentally polymerized glycol methacrylate resin. For this purpose, blocks of resin accidentally polymerized containing plant samples were trimmed and reshaped appropriately. The results were satisfactory and it was possible to obtain good sections of three micrometers thick.