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| Carolyn M. Salafia, MD's FAQ
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What are "tissue studies"?
"Tissue studies" is a way of describing histopathologic examination. Histopathologic examination is NOT the same as cytogenetic studies, which require the cells of the tissue to be able to grow. As cells are growing and dividing, their chromosomes get short and stumpy, so they can be identified separately and counted. Histopathologic examination simply takes one or more "representative tissue samples", as the pathologist usually says, and fixes them in a preservative (often formalin). Of course, then the cells can't be growing, but they are well preserved to study the details of the cell and tissue structure. The fixed tissue is embedded in wax, and a thin slice of the wax block is cut and laid flat on a microscope slide. Chemicals are then applied in a sequence which allows the nucleus of the cell (where the chromosomes are) to turn blue, and the protein and other parts of the cell and tissues to stain (generally) pink. The stained and coverslipped (protected) slide is placed under a microscope and examined.
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