Abstract
Histopathology tissue archives can be an important source of specimens for retrospective studies, as these include samples covering a large number of diseases. In veterinary medicine, archives also contain samples from a large variety of species and may represent naturally-occurring models of human disease. The formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues comprising these archives are rich resources for retrospective molecular biology studies and pilot studies for biomarkers, as evidenced by a number of recent publications highlighting FFPE tissues as a resource for analysis of specific diseases. However, DNA extracted from FFPE specimens are modified and fragmented, making utilization challenging. The current study examines the utility of FFPE tissue samples from a veterinary diagnostic laboratory archive in five year intervals from 1977 to 2013, with 2015 as a control year, to determine how standard processing and storage conditions has affected their utility for future studies. There was a significant difference in our ability to obtain large amplicons from samples from 2015 than from the remaining years, as well as an inverse correlation between the age of the samples and product size obtainable. However, usable DNA samples were obtained in at least some of the samples from all years tested, despite variable storage, fixation, and processing conditions. This study will help make veterinary diagnostic laboratory archives more useful in future studies of human and veterinary disease.
Highlights
The most commonly used fixative for histopathology is 10% neutral buffered formalin
The histopathology archive can be an important source of tissue specimens, as it includes archival tissue specimens from a large number of diseases, and, in veterinary
Archival paraffin tissue block were randomly selected from necropsy cases from the University of Florida Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory using the random number function in Microsoft Excel V14.5.0
Summary
The most commonly used fixative for histopathology is 10% neutral buffered formalin. Formalin preserves tissue and cellular architecture and facilitates subsequent tissue processing. The histopathology archive can be an important source of tissue specimens, as it includes archival tissue specimens from a large number of diseases, and, in veterinary. It may span a long time frame, making it a valuable resource for retrospective studies and prospective biomarker discovery (Magdeldin & Yamamoto, 2012). This is important as it allows linkage of histopathologic findings with molecular information (Iwamoto et al, 1996; Ludyga et al, 2012), with examination of diseases in various stages of natural disease (Lewis et al, 2001)
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