CMM Histology Service Lab

Reminder: SWEHSC Investigators (including their staff and students) should contact the Cellular Imaging Facility Core directly for assistance with planning experiments, questions regarding specimen handling, and assistance with analysis or the interpretation of results.

Services:

Routine Paraffin Histology Services:
   • Processing and paraffin embedding of fixed tissues
   • Individual, serial and/or step sections of paraffin embedded tissues
   • Routine and special stains (e.g., Trichrome, Picrosirius Red,
     Oil Red O, Silver, Orcien, Congo Red, Alcian blue, etc)
   • Antigen retrieval procedures that enable labs to perform
     immunostaining on their specimens

Routine Frozen Section Services:
   • Individual, serial and/or step sections of frozen tissues
   • Routine and special stains

Advantages and Disadvantages of Histology:

Advantages: Histology is one of the least expensive of the morphological techniques. It allows the user to examine large areas of tissue at a variety of magnifications. A wide range of staining techniques are available. The sections can be used for immunostaining.

Disadvantages: The light microscopic resolution of sections and general tissue morphology is not as good as that of plastic embedded sections from the EM lab (paraffin sections are better than frozen sections). Colorometric stains are not as specific as immunofluorescence staining.