We tried collecting and fixing vaginal rat tissue for histology (H&E staining), but the tissue shrunk and curled quite extensively. Therefore, we were unable to make clean sections of the tissue. We collected vaginal tissue and put it in a cassette in 4% PBS-buffered paraformaldehyde for 24 hours before transferring to PBS and subsequent dehydration.

Does anyone have any technical tips that might help overcome this issue? For samples where clean sections were obtained, the stained tissue looked in good shape, so it's mainly a technical issue. Unfortunately, a literature search didn't provide answers.