A Comparison between Epoxy Resin Slices and Histology Sections in the Study of Spinal Connective Tissue Structure

A comparative study of spinal connective tissue and its structural arrangement was carried out using tissue preserved in epoxy resin plastinated slices and paraffin embedded sections. The 2.5mm horizontal plastinated slices provide a more complete overview of connective tissue arrangement in the spine, including fibre arrangement, bony attachment sites and, continuity with neighbouring structures when compared with corresponding 7um paraffin embedded standard histology sections. Use of plastinated slices allows distinctive macroscopic definition of connective tissue fibre arrangement of spinal tendons, ligaments and fascia. The quality of the information obtained regarding connective tissue arrangement suggests that, for spinal research on selected dense connective tissue structure, use of epoxy plastinated slices presents an attractive alternative to conventional histology.