Estimate the shrinkage and weight loss of the tissues during gum Arabic preservation process

Plastination process is a modern safe preservation process of biological tissues and succeeded in providing semi-original anatomical specimens for teaching medical students, but it relatively cost.  In our previous study by Satte et al, in 2017, we used gum Arabic solutions as safe and inexpensive for the preservation of biological tissues, and the produced specimens were maintained their original anatomical features for the long-term. The current study aimed to estimate the shrinkage and weight loss of tissues preserved by gum Arabic solutions compared with the same tissues preserved by silicone-S10, which serve as a control. This study was conducted on 144 specimens obtained from adult sheep, divided into eleven experimental groups and one control group, each group contains twelve specimens of four halves of kidney, heart, and brain. The test groups were preserved in eleven different concentrations of gum Arabic solutions, and the control group was preserved in silicone-S10 as a control. The shrinkage and weight loss of preserved tissues were measured during the preservation process. During gum Arabic preservation process, no significant (p≤ 0.05) showed between test groups 1 to 10 and control, and the produced specimens relatively normal in shape and size. Group 11 specimens were presented a significant (p>0.05), which have the highest level of shrinkage and weight loss among all groups. To conclude: The specimens preserved by gum Arabic solutions (1-10) are realistic, maintained their general shape and size and can be used for teaching anatomy for medical students instead of relatively costive silicone-S10 plastinated tissues.