Histology, cytology and other related scientific disciplines study the microscopic anatomy of tissues and cells. Quality sample processing should be carried out in order to achieve good tissue and cellular structures visualization. Histological sample processing consists of a few steps, three of them consist of dehydration and rehydration. The first step consists of preparing the samples for infiltration and fitting in paraffin and cutting the paraffin blocks in thin slices. The second step consists of preparing the samples for staining. The final step consists of preparing the samples for mounting on the glass slide. Most of the fitting and infiltrating media (such as commonly used paraffin) will not permeate the water containing a sample.
Dehydration must be carried out first in order to achieve that. After adding the intermedium (a medium that enables permeating the sample using paraffin), fitting in paraffin, cutting it in thin slices and mounting them on a glass slide, the section will not deteriorate for a certain amount of time. However, paraffin should be removed from the section and it should be rehydrated before staining. Only then can the section be stained with histological dyes. A similar procedure is applied to cytological samples.
Most of dehydrating agents are alcohols. One of them (and the most commonly used one) is denatured ethanol, which is the main component of BioGnost’s Histanol. Histanol is a transparent, colorless, and flammable liquid characteristic of its fast-acting and high efficiency.
