Quest for transparency in plastination

Abstract

Plastination as a preservation technique, demonstration aid and research tool is well established. The aim of this study was to develop a technique of making solid viscera after latex injection and plastination, transparent. Thirty-five pairs of morphologically normal post-mortem human adult kidneys were harvested en-bloc. These specimens were subjected to various techniques after latex injection and included two types of plastination (P40 and E12), varying combinations of KOH and proteolytic enzyme immersion. Superficial transparency was achieved for only 1-2 mm in the en-bloc samples. Acceptable transparency was achieved only in coronally sectioned samples. The technique of latex injection, immersion in 10% KOH (6 days), slicing, dehydrating and subjecting to the E12 plastination technique produced the best results thus far with acceptable transparency of the solid visceral tissue. In the total series of 35 pairs of kidneys the quest for transparency still remains elusive.