Use of saturated sodium chloride solution as a tissue fixative

The present study was carried out to examine the capability of saturated sodium chloride solution as a fixative agent instead of formalin which is regarded as a carcinogenic material. For this purpose 3 rabbits were used and their livers, kidneys and spleens were exposed and removed. Neutral buffered formalin solution, saturated sodium chloride solution and distilled water were used as fixatives for specimens obtained from the first, second and third rabbits respectively. Routine histological technique was performed to prepare a stained histological sections for light microscopic examination. The result showed that the tissue sections which were obtained by using sodium chloride have the same histological features and without any artifacts when they compared with the results obtained using formalin fixation method. We conclude that the saturated sodium chloride solution can be used as a fixative agent in some circumstances when no any fixative agent is available.