Why is proper dehydration important in tissue processing?
Dehydration is a critical step in tissue processing before embedding, as it removes water from the tissue, enabling infiltration with embedding media like paraffin. Proper dehydration prevents tissue shrinkage and morphological distortion. This is typically achieved through a graded series of alcohols, starting with lower concentrations (70%) and progressing to absolute alcohol (100%). Incomplete dehydration can result in poor infiltration, leading to sectioning difficulties and compromised histological quality.
