Pathomorphological diagnostic of paraffin embedded versus epon embedded cardiac tissues with transmission electron microscope analysis

Abstract

Aggregation and deposition of proteins are found in several diseases, e.g. atherosclerosis and amyloidosis. Deposition of amyloid proteins, characterized by fibers with abnormal structural folding in various organs, is thought to be responsible for diseases like Alzheimer disease, Huntington disease, Parkinson disease and systemic amyloidosis, which frequently affects cardiac and renal tissues. Limitations in the diagnosis of early forms of amyloid deposits in formalin-fixed and paraffin embedded tissues with light microscopy and Congo red staining can be overcome by transmission electron microscopy using glutaraldehyd-fixed tissues. Here we describe a powerful method to perform transmission electron microscopy on primary paraffin-embedded cardiac tissue. Primary glutaraldehyd-fixed cardiac tissues from the same patient were used as control.