Specimen water retention after acetone dehydration is greater than presumed
E. Sinclair,, G. Patel,, A. Thomas, N. Mamun, S. D. Holladay, K. Czaja,
A precept in plastination has been that tissue is sufficiently dehydrated when the acetone bath concentration stabilizes at >99%, containing less than 1% residual water content. However, this accepted level has not been rigorously tested. The purpose of this study is to determine the the minimum acetone dehydration level to achieve successful plastination. To address this issue, we conducted a series of experiments using formalin-fixed myocardium, liver, and kidney tissues from equine, canine, and bovine specimens. Rapid dehydration time was achieved by placing tissue samples in a high acetone-to-tissue volume ratio of 5000:1 and allowing stabilization at >99% acetone. Three samples were removed daily, allowing contained acetone to evaporate, and tissues weighed to determine reduction of water content. The point at which tissue weight loss no longer occurred was identified as the “complete acetone evaporation time.” Residual water content after such dehydration was determined by the acetone-dehydrated tissue weight loss, after which the tissues were progressed to freeze-drying. Results show that all tissue types that had stopped losing weight in >99% acetone, retained significantly more than 1% water. These results add to current understanding of the plastination dehydration process and offer data that could inform changed solvent use procedures during dehydration.