Bouin´s fluid is a good fixative for adipose tissue.

Regards,

Daniela

Bouin's is ok if you want to do standard histology e.g. HE afterwards, impossible for most immuno- histology. We fix for many years with 4% Formaldehyde (attention toxic), works very well. You can buy the stocks for example from Sakura. Do not switch between different suppliers in a series, as the buffer composition might be different.

Hi Dipanjan,

it is hard to get good frozen sections from adipose tissue. The Problem is not the fixaton,(formaldehyd, paraformaldehy, Bouin's fluid are all suitable),

the problem is the fact that adipose tissue does not freez propally. It depends on the question what would you like to investigate? If you like to do some lipid stains like Sudan III or Sudan Black an embedding in gelatine or Aga would be helpful to keep the tissue in structure. If you are more interested in the cell structure of the tissue then I would recommand to embed the tissue in paraffin. During the embed precess the lipid components of the cells will get lost because of the dehydration in alcohol, but you can investigate the structure of the lipid containing cells very good becaus of producing thinner sections (3-5µm).

The best is by frozen section. If we are using fixative, it will wash away during washing.. It need to undergone serial of alcohol during washing, so the fat will wash away, we only discover cell frame.

95% Ethanol fixes fatty tissues better

For paraffin section, pottasium dichromate and osmium tetroxide fix fat. Fix tissue in 4-5% dichromate and 1-2% osmium (PBS) overnight. osmium also stains fat black. They are harmful you have to handle them in fume hood and properly discard.

Para estudios histomorfológico para la técnica de inclusión en parafina se puede fijar en Boüin durante 24 horas, pero para realizar técnicas histoquímicas específicas para la identificación de lípidos conviene fijar en Formol-Calcio (Baker) y realizar coloraciones específicas para la identificación de lípidos en cortes por congelación con crióstato como el Sudan Black, Sudan III y Azul de Nilo.

Dear Dr. Chattopadhyay,

We have done adipose tissue fixation with 4% Formaldehyde and it worked really well. Just try to use small pieces (e.g., size of a bean) and the formaldehyde volume should be at least 10 times higher than the tissue volume. I hope this advice can be helpfull.

Best regards,

Rodrigo

Hi, its depending on the purpose of your study. I recommend osmium tetroxide and bouin´s fixative solutions.

osmium tetroxide is the best one

Try formalin with calcium salts.

Best regards!

Diana