Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Apr;72(4):233-243.
doi: 10.1369/00221554241241369. Epub 2024 Mar 30.

Clearing Properties Between Coconut Oil and Xylene in Histological Tissue Processing

Owusu Afriyie Bright  1   2   3 , Darko Nkansah Samuel  3 , Musah Ayeley Adisa  4 , Owusu Ohui Dorcas  5 , Quartey Perez  1 , Antwi Ama Melody  1   3 , Addai Kusi Michael  1   6 , Osei Sarpong Albert  1 , Ebenezer Senu  3
Affiliations

Clearing Properties Between Coconut Oil and Xylene in Histological Tissue Processing

Owusu Afriyie Bright et al. J Histochem Cytochem. 2024 Apr.

Abstract

Xylene is the commonest clearing agent even though it is hazardous and costly. This study evaluated the clearing properties of coconut oil as an alternative cost-effective clearing agent for histological processes. Ten (10) prostate samples fixed in formalin were taken and each one was cut into 4 before randomly separating them into four groups (A, B, C and D). Tissues were subjected to ascending grades of alcohol for dehydration. Group A was cleared in xylene and Groups B, C, and D were cleared at varying times of 1hr 30mins, 3hrs, and 4hrs in coconut oil respectively before embedding, sectioning, and staining were carried out. Gross and histological features were compared. Results indicated a significant shrinkage in coconut oil-treated specimen compared with the xylene-treated specimen and only the tissues cleared in coconut oil for 4hrs were as rigid as the tissues cleared in xylene (p > 0.05). No significant difference was found in either of the sections when checked for cellular details and staining quality (p > 0.999). Coconut oil is an efficient substitute for xylene in prostate tissues with a minimum clearing time of 4hrs, as it is environmentally friendly and less expensive, but causes significant shrinkage to prostate tissue.

Keywords: Bernoulli’s principle; H&E staining; clearing agent; coconut oil; histological preparation; histopathology; hot-air oven; prostate organ; xylene.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Shows prostate tissue cleared in coconut oil for 1hr 30min.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Shows prostate tissue cleared in xylene for 3hrs and stained with Haematoxylin (A) and Eosin (B).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Shows prostate tissue cleared with coconut oil for 3hrs and stained with Haematoxylin and Eosin.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Shows a prostate tissue cleared in coconut oil for 4hr.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
A box plot showing shrinkage in coconut oil compared to xylene.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Shows observation of tissues after clearing.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Metgud R, Astekar MS, Soni A, Naik S, Vanishree M. Conventional xylene and xylene-free methods for routine histopathological preparation of tissue sections. Biotech Histochem. 2013;88(5):235–41. - PubMed
    1. Aziz N, Zhao Q, Bry L, Driscoll DK, Funke B, Gibson JS, Grody WW, Hegde MR, Hoeltge GA, Leonard DG, Merker JD, Nagarajan R, Palicki LA, Robetorye RS, Schrijver I, Weck KE, Voelkerding KV. College of American pathologists’ laboratory standards for next-generation sequencing clinical tests. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2015;139(4):481–93. - PubMed
    1. Rai R, Bhardwaj A, Verma S. Tissue fixatives: a review. Int J Pharm Drug Anal. 2016;4(4):183–7.
    1. Hryn VH, Kostylenko YP, Bilash VP, Tarasenko YA. Features of angioarchitecture of the albino rats stomach and small intestine. Wiad Lek. 2019;72(3):311–7. - PubMed
    1. Dineshshankar J, Saranya M, Tamilthangam P, Swathiraman J, Shanmathee K, Preethi R. Kerosene as an alternative to xylene in histopathological tissue processing and staining: an experimental study. J Pharm Bioallied Sci. 2019;11(Suppl 2):S376–9. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources