Air contrast of the intervillous space enables non-disruptive Micro-CT analysis of paraffin-embedded archival placental tissue

Barapatre, N.; Aschauer, B.; Kampfer, C.; Schmitz, C.; Koch, F. E. von and Frank, H.-G. (2020): Air contrast of the intervillous space enables non-disruptive Micro-CT analysis of paraffin-embedded archival placental tissue. In: Placenta, Vol. 100: pp. 66-68

Abstract

The morphometric parameters of the villous tree are a strong indicator of deviant placentas. Methods have been established to digitally reconstruct small peripheral branches by tracing with 3D Microscopy at subcellular resolution. Micro-CT can help scale up the scanning of villous trees with resolution in the range of a few micrometers. As placental tissue samples are routinely conserved and archived by fixation and paraffin embedding, the villous structures are inaccessible to Micro-CT imaging due to poor contrast between paraffin and paraffinized tissue. We present a novel procedure for contrast enhancement by selectively replacing wax by air in the intervillous space.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Medicine
• Subjects: 600 Technology > 610 Medicine and health
• ISSN: 0143-4004
• Language: English