34795
Accession Number
25148
Title Of Article Chaper
Preservation of elastic system fibers and of collagen molecular arrangement and stainability in an Egyptian mummy
Title Of Journal Book
Histochemistry
Volume
83
Issue
2
Pages
117-119
Language Of Text
English
Literature Type
Serial
Literature Level
Analytic
Abstract
Both elastic system fibers and collagen markedly resisted change in tissues over 2000 years old. The distribution of elastic fibers and elastic-related fibers (namely, oxytalan and elaunin fibers) in mummified tissues coincided with the observations made on the modern human tissues used as controls. The collagenous structures present in tissue sections obtained from the Egyptian mummy studied took on a deeply red color when stained in the Picrosirius solution indicating that, as well as in the fresh controls, the basic groups in the collagen molecules were available for reacting with the strongly acidic dye Sirius Red. When viewed with polarized light, the collagen in the same tissue sections displayed an increased birefringence, which shows that the collagen molecules in mummified tissues maintain the oriented disposition which is typical of the modern human tissues used as controls. The methods employed have proved to be useful for the delineation of the elastic system fibers, and of the collagenous scaffolding, which may be used as valuable landmarks in the study of the histoarchitecture of organs that have undergone considerable distortion. -- AATA
Keywords
Collagen;Mummies;Egypt;Staining;Microscopy AATA
pub_id
34795