Epoxy Resin Embedding of Animal and Human Tissues for Pathological Diagnosis and Research

Ultrastructural analysis
Epoxy resin embedding of different tissues e.g. animal tissues, human tumours and non-neoplastic lesions

Reagents
Cacodylate buffer (0.1M)
Fixatives: modified Karnovsky fixative (2% paraformaldehyde + 2.5% glutaraldehyde in 0.1M cacodylate buffer); Osmium-tetroxide Os04 (1% in 0.1M cacodylate buffer)
Ethanols (50%, 70%, 95%, abs.)
Acetone abs.

Epoxy resin (all EPON components from Electron Microscopy Sciences, Munich/Germany):
EMbed 812 90g #14960
DDSA 60g #13710
NMA 40g #19000
DMP-30 3g #13600

Fixation protocol
The tissues were fixed in the modified Karnovsky fixative generally by immersion overnight (at minimum 4h at room temperature). Then pieces of approx. 1mm³ were cut with a sharp razor blade and processed for embedding in the Leica EM AMW.