Glycol methacrylate embedding for light microscopy. I. enzyme histochemistry on semithin sections of undecalcified marrow cores.

A simple, routine procedure for water miscible glycol methacrylate (GMA) embedding of undecalcified bone marrow cores, which preserves the activity of enzymes useful in diagnosing various haematopoietic disorders, is described. The GMA used in this study has a low acid content that eliminates background staining, and the modified May-Grünwald-Giemsa stain provides good definition and excellent colour differentiation of various haematopoietic cells in the bone marrow, thereby providing optimal conditions for the study of the morphology and enzyme activity of bone marrow cells in the same preparation. The method is simple, reproducible, requires no expensive equipment, and is suitable for routine processing of small bone marrow cores in any histopathology or haematology laboratory.