Bruun Rasmussen B, Norring Hjort K, Mellerup I, Sether G, Christensen N
Department of Pathology, Roskilde County Hospital, Denmark.
APMIS. 1992 Sep;100(9):827-31. doi: 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1992.tb04006.x.
In an effort to improve working conditions in the histopathologic laboratory, we have investigated whether less toxic substances may be substituted for the toxic organic solvent xylene currently in use. Xylene is used in the clearing as well as the deparaffinization process. We have tested whether the substitution of xylene by olive oil and coconut oil leads to any difference in the quality of the histologic sections. Two tissue blocks from each of 232 specimens sent for histopathologic evaluation were subjected to parallel processing in xylene and oil. The specimens represented a broad spectrum of tissue types. All sections were stained with hematoxylin-eosin to permit evaluation of histologic and cytologic details. Furthermore, a range of histochemical and immunohistochemical stainings were applied to a subgroup of tissue sections. The results showed qualitative differences between xylene-processed and oil-processed tissue in only a minority of cases. In no cases were the oil-processed samples considered less suitable for histologic diagnosis. In the histochemical and immunohistochemical stainings, no differences were registered. Although the long-term stability of oil-processed tissue remains to be clarified, we conclude that less toxic vegetable oil may probably be substituted for xylene without losing valuable diagnostic information.
为了改善组织病理学实验室的工作条件，我们研究了毒性较低的物质是否可以替代目前使用的有毒有机溶剂二甲苯。二甲苯用于透明和脱蜡过程。我们测试了用橄榄油和椰子油替代二甲苯是否会导致组织切片质量出现差异。在送往组织病理学评估的232个标本中，每个标本取两个组织块分别用二甲苯和油进行平行处理。这些标本代表了广泛的组织类型。所有切片均用苏木精-伊红染色，以便评估组织学和细胞学细节。此外，对一部分组织切片进行了一系列组织化学和免疫组织化学染色。结果显示，在少数情况下，二甲苯处理的组织和油处理的组织之间存在质量差异。在任何情况下，油处理的样本都未被认为不太适合组织学诊断。在组织化学和免疫组织化学染色中，未发现差异。尽管油处理组织的长期稳定性仍有待阐明，但我们得出结论，毒性较低的植物油可能可以替代二甲苯，而不会丢失有价值的诊断信息。
