{"doi":"10.1093/biolre/ioaf117","title":"A comparative analysis of fixatives for improved histological integrity in the human ovary","abstract":"Dear Editor, The advent of ovarian tissue cryopreservation (OTC) for fertility preservation has allowed for the evaluation of normal human ovarian tissue. Fixation is a critical initial step in preserving the morphological integrity of specimens to prevent autolysis and degradation, thus facilitating microscopic evaluation for pathologic and research analyses [1, 2]. Extensive research has shown that the method used to handle and process tissues can significantly influence the preservation of tissue structure, proteins, and nucleic acids [3–5]. The number of human follicles, structures comprised of the oocyte and surrounding granulosa cells, is fixed at birth and thereafter declines through a process of activation and development through different stages of folliculogenesis and atresia [6]. Accurately assessing follicle development through histology is important for understanding this process. However, tissue processing and fixation may interfere with the proper assessment of follicle morphology. Although the effect of fixative type on follicle appearance has been studied in animal models, there are minimal published reports evaluating fixatives in human ovarian tissue [7]. Neutral Buffered Formalin (NBF), though commonly used in pathology departments, is known to cause shrinkage in many tissue types [8]. One study using human ovarian tissue found that NBF with 5% acetic acid (Form-Acetic) exhibited greater preservation of tissue integrity when compared to NBF, was comparable to Bouin’s fixative, and was compatible with common histological staining methods [8]. Here, we seek to evaluate the effects of different fixatives on follicle appearance through a comparative analysis of human ovarian tissue treated with three different fixatives: NBF, modified Davidson’s Fixative (mDF), and paraformaldehyde (PFA). We selected NBF as it is the standard fixative in pathology departments and used mDF and PFA due to their commercial availability. Bouin’s fixative was excluded because of significant safety concerns. As ovarian tissue is limited and immediate fixation is essential, we relied on these readily available fixatives.","journal":"Biology of Reproduction","year":2025,"id":545241,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.958,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":512445,"name":"Mary E. Soliman","orcid":"0009-0002-2110-432X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":384035,"name":"Hong Lou","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":443673,"name":"Raghuveer Kavarthapu","orcid":"0000-0002-2198-2029","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":435085,"name":"Maria De La Luz Sierra","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":774947,"name":"Jacqueline Y. Maher","orcid":"0000-0001-5336-2943","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":299751,"name":"Veronica Gomez‐Lobo","orcid":"0000-0001-9396-2142","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1436074,"name":"Elizabeth Abbu Varghese","orcid":"0000-0001-9381-3219","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":9,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:53:23.001995Z","pmid":"40632081","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}