A histochemical and histophysical survey of the effects of different fixatives on the thyroid gland of rats

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Fixation of the thyroid gland with formaldehyde‐ethanol‐acetic acid retains a larger proportion of colloid constituents than aqueous formaldehyde. Comparative histochemistry has revealed a larger proportion of protein, arginine, cabohydrates and iodinated material. The heterogeneous staining pattern was not observed after aqueous formaldehyde fixation. The intracellular globules and the early iodinated fraction of the colloid were similarly stained. Intracellular globules were not observed in aqueous formaldehyde‐fixed tissues. Only the more slowly labeled fraction of the colloid (large follicles), was stained by toluidine blue and also by bromphenol blue without mercury, indicative of basic proteins.