Studies in lipid histochemistry

A considerable portion of polar lipids survives the routine dehydration procedure for paraffin embedding with ethanol, acetone and xylene and can be detected in dehydrated blocks of tissue. Sphingomyelin, cerebrosides, sulphatides and gangliosides can be demonstrated with appropriate histochemical methods and chromatographically even in ordinary paraffin sections especially when the amount of these lipids in tissues is sufficiently high, e.g. in lipidoses and in normal myelin. In blocks of tissue dehydrated with acetone and cleared with benzen a considerably higher amount of polar lipids is present. Factors governing the preservation of polar lipids in paraffin sections are discussed.