Tissue Fixation and Processing for the Histological Identification of Lipids.

Lipids are a heterogeneous group of substances characterized by their solubility in organic solvents and insolubility in water. Lipids can be found as normal components of different tissues and organs, and they can be affected by several pathological conditions. The histochemical identification of lipids plays an important role in the histopathological diagnosis and research, but successful staining depends on adequate fixation and processing of the tissue. Here we describe methods to fix, cryoprotect, and process tissue samples for the histochemical identification of lipids in frozen or paraffin-embedded tissues.