Histological techniques for porous, absorbable, polymeric scaffolds used in tissue engineering

Tissue engineering is the development of biologically based materials for tissue replacement, often by combining cells with an absorbable, porous scaffold material. Absorbable materials are sensitive to histological processes, and the fragile nature of tissue-engineered devices compounds these problems. This study compared different methods of embedding and sectioning tissue-engineered constructs, including paraffin, cryostat, and hard tissue techniques. It was found that glycol methacrylate embedding is more time consuming and expensive but retains the structure and results in minimal background staining as compared with other techniques. It was found that cryosectioning using an adapted tape transfer technique is inexpensive and quick, but at this time has limited staining options due to high background staining. It will be of future interest to modify staining protocols to further this technique.