Student Presenter(s): Lina Elkoulily, Cagri Senlik
Faculty Mentor: Claude Gagna
Department: Biological and Chemical Sciences
School/College: College of Arts and Sciences, Long Island

Fixation of tissue is a critical part of histotechnology. No one has ever performed a comparative study of preserved bone tissue based on different fixatives. Preliminary studies were performed with cat femur bones, in order to learn how to use the microCT scanner (i.e., Bruker SkyScan 1173), and software (i.e., Dragonfly). This is the data we will be presenting at the SOURCE (i.e., Part 1).

Part 2 of our research project involves the bones of birds. Different fixatives were used in order to preserve adult (i.e., 9 weeks) male chicken (i.e., Cornish X) medullary bone tissue (i.e., femur; average length: 4.5 inches), so that we could determine the effects of fixation on overall bone morphology (e.g., bone cortex, epiphysial growth plate, proximal metaphysis, and diaphysis). We started the project with four fixatives, i.e., Davidsons, Carnoy's, Buffered Zinc Formalin, Davidson's and 70% ethanol. Tissues were then characterized using the Bruker SkyScan 1173 high-energy microCT scanner (NSF-NYIT grant: 1828305). We are examining both longitudinal and cross sectional views of the bone structure.

Based on the cat bones, our initial observations show that Davidson's fixative may have penetrated deeper into cortical bone and medullary cavity than 70% Ethanol. As the project continues to develop, we will examine the densitometric parameters of the chicken bone, as it relates to a specific fixative.