Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, 1921, xviii, pp. 172-173.

84 (1666)

The use of blood plasma in the imbedding or the dissection of small organisms.

By GEORGE A. BAITSELL.

[From the Osborn Zoological Laboratory, Yale University.]

Various methods have been used in order to overcome the difficulties attendant upon the carrying of a minute organism, such as a protozoön, through the numerous reagents necessary for imbedding in paraffine preliminary to microtome sectioning. It has been found that the phenomenon of coagulation in blood plasma makes it of use in work of this type. In carrying out this method, a few drops of blood plasma is placed on a depression slide under a binocular microscope and the specimen at once placed in it with a pipet. After the plasma coagulates, which will take place in a very few minutes, the specimen will be found to be firmly imbedded in a resistant fibrin clot which can be taken through the various reagents, imbedded in paraffine, sectioned in any desired plane and finally mounted on a slide. In brief, the clot containing the specimen may be treated as a regular piece of tissue of the same size.

The orientation of the specimen in the clot may be accomplished before the clot is fully formed or at the time when the clot is in the clearing fluid just prior to imbedding. In the clearing fluid the clot becomes transparent and can be examined under a microscope and the imbedded specimen located in it. The clot can then be trimmed so as to indicate the orientation of the specimen.

Plasma of various animals can be used. I have generally used frog plasma and have secured it by the method previously described.1

Blood plasma has also been found to be useful in holding small animals firmly in a certain position so that they can be dissected. In this connection it may be noted that the dissection can proceed as far as desired and then no matter how fragile

1 Journal of Experimental Medicine, 1915, xxi, 456.

the dissected parts may be, additional plasma can be added and the fragile dissected part or parts imbedded in a clot in the same manner as described above. If desired, the clot can then be taken through the regular reagents and imbedded in paraffine for sectioning.

There is no doubt that blood plasma can be put to many other similar uses depending upon the nature of the problems and the ingenuity of the investigator. The securing and keeping of the plasma will not be found too difficult after the operation has been performed a few times.