ARTIFACTS IN MICROSCOPIC SLIDES AND TEM IMAGES OF AQUATIC ANIMALS AND INSECTS: A 10-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE OBSERVATION

Abstract

Since histopathology is used to assess health status and pathological changes, the proper preparation of histological slides is a routine procedure under the standard criteria, laboratory equipment and histo-technicians. It is accepted that artifacts are commonly found in prepared slides and can lead to errors in assessment and diagnostic problems for histotechnologists and pathologists. In this 10-year retrospective study, data collected during observations in our laboratory was examined to identify artifacts in aquatic animal/insect histological sections and associated errors. Information of ultrastructural artifacts was also included throughout the study. Results from this research revealed that several artifacts of tissue specimen including fixation, over-decalcification, dehydration and paraffin infiltration, sectioning, flotation, staining, and mounting artifacts. Interestingly, artifacts from the aquatic animal histological slides were most introduced during fixation, tissue processing, sectioning, and mounting procedures. Consequently, these inclusions had an incomplete influence on the histological process and hardly affected the histopathological interpretation of tissue sections. Additionally, artifacts could occur in transmission electron micrographs of pre-fixative and thin sections. This article is the first to describe the most common errors and artifacts, serving as a guide to help reduce the occurrence of artifacts in animal histological slides and thin sections. However, they recognized a challenge for histological slide preparation.