Postmortem autolytic changes mainly attributable to the long interval between death and autopsy interfere with electron microscopical research on the human lungs. In order to resolve these difficulties, the transthoracically induced fixation method described by Bachofen et al, was studied.
0.5ml of 2.5% glutaraldehyde was injected into the lungs of rats by transthoracic route without opening the chest immediately after death obtained by administration of overdose of pentabarbiturate then the cadavers were kept in an oven at 30°C. At intervals for up to 20 hours after death, several cadavers were withdrawn and the lungs were removed
en bloc Lung tissues into which transthoracically injected fixative permeated were diced, immersed in the same fixative, and postfixed in 1% OsO4. Then the pieces were embedded in Epon 812, and ultrathin sections were observed with a transmission electron microscope. Tissues into which fixative was not injected, were also treated in the same way.
In the tissues into which the fixative permeated, pneumocytes and endothelial cells of alveolar capillaries were well preser ed despite exposure to high temperature for up to 20 hours except for sporadic appearance of dilated endoplasmic reticulum and localized edematous swelling of cytoplasm. On the other hand, the cells in non-permeated lung tissues showed increasing severity of alterations with the passage of time after death, dilated endoplasmic reticulum one hour post mortem, disrupted cytoplasmic membrane after four hours and complete loss of the cell structures after 20 hours were observed.
These facts showed that the transthoracic injection of fixative into the human lungs immediately after leath should be very effective to prevent postmortem autolytic alterations and supply well preserved lung tissues or ultrastractural studies despite long periods between death and autopsy.
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