Hi all,

Plastination has been performed here at Mercer University School of Medicine for
some years.  The procedure was developed by Gunther von Hagens in Heidelbeg in
the 1970s.  Our PA at that time, Lamar Jackson, studied under him in Germany to
set up our laboratory here.  At present the lab is inactive, but we do have a
huge archive of plastinated specimens for medical student use.  The specimens
are excellent teaching tools; it produces a dry, odorless, nontoxic,
noninfectious model which can be handled easily.

One of my projects for a presentation at the IAP in 1987 was to de-plastinate
specimens and process them for sectioning and staining, including IHC.  It can
be done but the process is very time consuming to remove the polymer and embed
in paraffin.  If you plan to study the specimen microscopically it may be
preferable to obtain sections before plastinating.  I have not tried other
methods of sectioning other than paraffin.  There are different kinds of
plastination, one is sheet plastination.  Dr. von Hagens prepared a complete
human body using this technique and displayed it here at Mercer for one of the
Plastination Society's meetings.  It was incredible and drew quite a crowd from
the area.

Shirley Powell



huff wrote:

> The only technique that I can recommend is something I saw on exhibit in
> Berlin over the summer called Plastination (see
> http://www.plastination.com). The technique can be applied at the whole
> tissue, organ, or even body level. The technique outlined on the webpage
> is for organ slices but the process is also applied to whole organs. The
> samples that I saw were quite pliable and completely intact. The process
> includes fixation, dehydration, forced impregnation of a polymer, and
> finally curing. I would recommend that you contact them for your
> particular needs. Contact information is on their web page. The result
> is amazing.
> I don't know though if the final tissue can be used for histochemical
> processing. You will have to ask them. If you decide to use their
> process, please post a follow-up. I would be interested to see what they
> can offer. You can view some of the resulting "whole human body"
> preparations on their exhibition website
> (http://www.koerperwelten.com/index_en.htm). One of the most popular
> exhibits was actually two lungs, one was from a smoker, and the other
> from a non-smoker. The former was quite healthy looking and the latter
> looked like a poorly paved highway. If you are interested in the image
> to see the level of detail, I have a copy I could send you via email.
>
> Hope this help,
> Phillip Huff
> FBN Dummerstorf
>
> jjthorsten@mmm.com wrote:
>
> > Hi histonetters,
> >
> > I am wondering if anyone knows a way to fix an entire lung to keep it as
> > pliable as possible, but also to keep it from decomposing.  I have seen in
> > some educational catalogs that they have model lungs which are from pigs
> > for inhalation demonstrations.  Any information you can provide would be
> > great.
> >
> > Thank You,
> >
> > Jason
> > HT, (ASCP)
> >
> >
> >