Department of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Arizona College of Medicine, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
J Anat. 2018 Nov;233(5):607-617. doi: 10.1111/joa.12875. Epub 2018 Aug 28.
Museum fluid collections preserve important biological specimens for study. Tissues are often fixed in 10% buffered formalin to halt metabolic activities and transferred to a solution of ethanol for long-term storage. This process, however, forces water from the tissues and has been shown to alter the morphology of preserved specimens in ways that may influence the biological interpretation of results. The degree to which fluid preservation alters morphology is linked to multiple biological factors, such as tissue size and composition, and should therefore be examined prior to functional analysis. This study is undertaken as part of a more inclusive examination of mammalian volar morphology. A sample of five adult male and five adult female rats (Rattus norvegicus) was utilized to evaluate longitudinal changes in the dimensions of the volar pads across fixation in 10% buffered formalin and preservation in 70% ethanol for 1 year. No significant changes to the measured dimensions of the rat volar pads were present across stages of fixation and preservation, and no significant interactions of specimen size or sex were noted. These findings indicate that small mammalian volar pads that have been fixed in 10% buffered formalin and stored in 70% ethanol are appropriate for morphological study using the measurements described here without corrective algorithms. This finding is rare among preservation studies but highlights the variability of tissue behavior during chemical preservation and the necessity of preliminary investigations of preservation artifacts. Concurrence here between the preserved and unpreserved samples is likely related to the anhydrous nature of the volar pads and the supporting skeletal structure, and their confined position between major joints of the hands and feet.
博物馆液体藏品为研究保存了重要的生物标本。组织通常用 10%缓冲福尔马林固定以停止代谢活动，然后转移到乙醇溶液中进行长期储存。然而，这个过程会迫使组织中的水分流失，并已证明会以可能影响结果生物学解释的方式改变保存标本的形态。液体保存改变形态的程度与多个生物学因素有关，例如组织大小和组成，因此应该在进行功能分析之前进行检查。本研究是对哺乳动物掌侧形态更全面检查的一部分。使用 5 只成年雄性和 5 只成年雌性大鼠（Rattus norvegicus）样本，评估了掌垫在 10%缓冲福尔马林固定和 70%乙醇保存 1 年后的尺寸在固定和保存过程中的纵向变化。在固定和保存的各个阶段，掌垫的测量尺寸均未发生显著变化，也未观察到标本大小或性别有显著交互作用。这些发现表明，已经用 10%缓冲福尔马林固定并储存在 70%乙醇中的小型哺乳动物掌垫适合使用这里描述的测量方法进行形态学研究，而无需使用校正算法。这一发现在保存研究中很少见，但强调了组织在化学保存过程中的行为变异性以及对保存人工制品进行初步研究的必要性。这里保存样本和未保存样本之间的一致性可能与掌垫和支撑骨骼结构的无水性质以及它们在手和脚的主要关节之间的受限位置有关。
