Background: Histological analysis of the cochlea is required to understand the physiological and patholog-
ical processes in the inner ear. In the past, many embedding techniques have been tested in the cochlea
to find an optimal protocol that gives both good morphological and immunohistochemical results. Resins
provide high quality cochlear morphology with reduced immunogenicity due to the higher polymeriza-
tion temperature.
New method: We used Technovit 9100 New®, a low temperature embedding system based on methyl
methacrylate, on adult guinea pig and mouse cochleae to evaluate preservation of the morphology and
maintenance of the antigenicity.
Results: Conventional toluidine blue staining, as well as immunohistochemical staining with a set of
commonly used antibodies, showed highly preserved morphology and immunogenicity of decalcified
adult guinea pig and mouse cochleae.
Comparison with existing method(s): We demonstrate both, well-preserved morphology and preservation
of antigenicity, superior to other embedding techniques.
Conclusions: Our results showed that the Technovit 9100 New® embedding system provided highly
preserved morphology and immunogenicity with our protocol in adult guinea pig and mouse cochleae.