The soft plastination, or Elnady technique is primarily used for preserving anatomical specimens by replacing water and fat in the tissues with polymer. It is a novel, low cost technique which is used to produce anatomical teaching- aids, and can be modified to prepare microscopic sections.

for histology and pathology education.

In this study, the soft plastination technique was used to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the technique. Tissue samples of plastinated kidneys were obtained for histological study.

De-plastination refers to the process of removing the plastination medium, which is typically a plastic resin,. Acetone is commonly used as a solvent in the de-plastination process after soft plastination. De-plastination is the reverse process of plastination, where the polymer is dissolved to reveal the preserved specimen


The soft plastination technique is primarily used for preserving anatomical specimens by replacing water and fat in the tissues with polymer, it is a novel technique which is applied as an anatomical teaching aid and can be modified to prepare thin tissue sections. A modified technique was used to transform the plastinated specimens into microscopic sections for histology and pathology education. In this study, the soft plastination technique was used to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the technique. Tissue samples of plastinated kidneys were obtained for histological study. De-plastination refers to the process of removing the plastinated medium, which is typically a plastic resin. Acetone is commonly used as a solvent in the de-plastination process. De-plastination is the reverse process of plastination, where the polymer is dissolved to reveal the preserved specimen. After de-plastination, the samples were embedded in a mold of paraffin wax. The wax was allowed to solidify into blocks. The block was then cut into thin sections using a microtome. The microtome settings were adjusted to obtain sections of the desired thickness (typically around 5-10 micrometers for histological studies). The histological sections were then mounted onto glass microscope slides. Appropriate staining techniques were applied, such as hematoxylin and eosin (H&E), to enhance cellular details and highlight specific structures within the kidney tissue. The plastinated sections were compared to de-plastinated and formalin-fixed specimens. The soft plastination technique was found to be a helpful method for the examination of the microscopic specimens.