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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · J Lab Physicians 2018; 10(02): 189-193
DOI: 10.4103/JLP.JLP_111_17
Original Article

Alternative to xylene as a clearing agent in histopathology

Nasar Alwahaibi
Department of Allied Health Sciences, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman
,
Shaima Aljaradi
Department of Pathology, Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Muscat, Oman
,
Horiyah Alazri
Department of Pathology, Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Muscat, Oman
› Institutsangaben Financial support and sponsorship Nil.
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ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Clearing is an essential step in processing tissue for light microscopy. Xylene is the clearing agent used most commonly worldwide. Xylene is toxic and therefore a threat to personnel working in histopathology laboratories. We evaluated a safer alternative clearing agent for use in the histopathology laboratory.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used 230 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue blocks from 19 different tissues. Half of the specimens were processed using xylene and half were processed using UltraClear™. Tissues were evaluated for eight parameters: sectioning, nuclear staining, cytoplasmic staining, overall cell morphology, clarity of staining, uniformity of staining, quality of immunohistochemistry (IHC), and cost.

RESULTS: Both UltraClear™ and xylene processed sections scored 100% for IHC. Sections processed using UltraClear™ were easy to cut (81.7%) as were xylene processed sections (96.5%). UltraClear™ processed sections showed 67%, 60.9%, 52.2%, 63.5%, and 67% for nuclear staining, cytoplasmic staining, cell morphology, clarity of staining, and uniformity of staining, respectively. UltraClear™ is twice as expensive as xylene. We found that tissues processed using UltraClear™ were easy to cut and worked well for both hematoxylin and eosin and IHC staining.

CONCLUSION: UltraClear™ is less toxic, less flammable, friendlier to the environment, and easy to handle, but it is two times expensive than xylene. The findings of this study recommend the use of UltraClear™ solution as a routine clearing agent in histopathology laboratories. However, further studies are required.

Keywords

Clearing agent - histopathology - histoprocessing - UltraClear™ - xylene


Publikationsverlauf

Eingereicht: 13. Juni 2017

Angenommen: 09. Juli 2017

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
19. Februar 2020

© 2018.

Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Private Ltd.
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