What process preserves tissue using fixatives?

The process that preserves tissue using fixatives is fixation. This crucial step in histopathology involves treating the tissue with chemical agents, known as fixatives, to stabilize the cellular structure and prevent autolysis and decay. Fixation helps to maintain the morphology and integrity of the tissue by cross-linking proteins, preserving cellular components, and halting enzymatic breakdown.

Without proper fixation, the sample may degrade, making it difficult to study the cellular organization and pathology accurately. Common fixatives include formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde, which serve to preserve both the overall tissue architecture and the fine cellular details critical for diagnosis and research.

Other processes, such as embedding, decalcification, and mounting, are subsequent steps that occur after fixation. Embedding involves placing the fixed tissue into a medium that allows for thin sectioning, decalcification is a process for removing calcium deposits from bone samples to allow for better histological examination, and mounting refers to placing the tissue sections onto slides for microscopic observation. Thus, while these steps are important in histopathological preparation, they do not involve the initial preservation of the tissue itself, which is the primary function of fixation.