Paraffin has been used in biological sciences since the late 1800’s and has been the foundation for histological technique for many years. With the introduction of Teflon coated blades, the cutting characteristics of most paraffins has improved significantly. However, with the increased demand for immuno-staining, and other specialty histological procedures, cutting characteristics by themselves are no longer of primary importance. Melting point, infiltrating ability, shrinkage, expansion, compression and elasticity are but some of the criteria that current paraffins must meet. In recent years some significant improvements have been made in the quality and cutting characteristics of paraffins, and PolyFin® has proven to be the outstanding paraffin for infiltrating, embedding, and cutting processed tissue.
• PolyFin® is a mixture of fine paraffin waxes and copolymer alloys in the form of milk-white pellets having a melting point of 58-60°C.
• PolyFin® has been institutionally tested and found to function flawlessly in pressure/vacuum fluid flow tissue processors as well as in pulsating processors.
• PolyFin® produces the most homogenous paraffin impregnation. As a result, tissue processed in PolyFin® will have less artifacts and better infiltration, yielding higher quality staining for microscopic examinations.
• PolyFin® shrinks a mere 9.4% during normal cooling. This is far less than any other leading paraffin. Tissues embedded in PolyFin® will yield better sections due to less compression.
• PolyFin® provides maximum support for both hard and soft tissue samples while maintaining exceptional clarity.
• PolyFin® processed and embedded tissue produced the least amount of shrinkage or expansion when the cut sections were floated on a water bath.
• PolyFin® formulation eliminates the need to reduce the waterbath temperature when cutting CNS tissue sections.
