Special Considerations in Embedding a Lactide Absorbable Polymer

Abstract

Absorbable biomaterial implants are advantageous in that they require no retrieval surgery and they absorb as the affected tissue heals. The nature of the in vivo or in vitro absorption process may be determined by processing, embedding, and sectioning an explanted specimen and surrounding tissue or by directly embedding and sectioning an in vitro specimen. It is important to utilize an embedding medium that will not chemically interact with the polymer, in order to accurately determine the tissue/material absorption interaction.

Poly-1-lactide absorbable polymeric films were embedded in 5 different resins to observe the chemical interaction between the resin and the absorbable material and to examine the relative ease of sectioning: methylmethacrylate, hydroxyethyl methacrylate, paraffin, epoxy, and polyester based resins. Paraffin, epoxy, and polyester resins best preserved the surface of the films. The study further suggests that paraffin may be too soft for monitoring materials used in long term absorption studies and that polyester is suitable only if polymerization is initiated before the material is embedded. Hydroxyethyl methacrylate was the most susceptible to environmental conditions. In all cases, the direction of sectioning had a substantial impact on the section quality. (The J Histotechnol 19:39, 1996)

Keywords:

• epoxy
• methacrylate
• paraffin
• polyester
• polylactide
• styrene