Development of a Dewaxing Protocol for Tissue-Engineered Models of the Oral Mucosa Used for Raman Spectroscopic Analysis

: We demonstrate that wax-embedded models of tissue-engineered oral mucosa can be effectively dewaxed using xylene for Raman spectroscopic analysis. Tissue sections of 20 μm thickness were cut and mounted onto glass slides. Sections were placed in xylene for increasing lengths from 2 to 45 min. Acquired Raman spectra revealed the wax contribution in the fingerprint region until 28-min treatment in xylene. Good quality and wax-free spectra were recorded at 30, 35, 40, and 45 min in xylene with no significant differences among them. It is essential to collect uncontaminated Raman spectra in order to achieve authentic results because the fingerprint region of biological tissues holds extremely vital information that is of diagnostic significance in cancer.