Shrinkage was only 14.5% in cold temperature acetone while room temperature acetone was 20.2% and room temperature methanol was 22.6%. These room temperature shrinkages were lower than the 35% reported by Holladay (1988) and the 44% and 53% reported by Schwab and von Hagens (1981). Part of the difference likely lies in the fact that their tissue included nervous tissue. Nerve tissue is known to have a higher percent shrinkage at room temperature than other tissues (von Hagens, 1985). Small animal livers had the highest percent shrinkage of the four organs tested. If
liver tissue data is removed from all dehydrated specimen groups, the shrinkage percent is lowered across groups by 1.7 to 3.3%. This represents a similar decrease among groups. This finding was somewhat surprising since the liver is a parenchymatous organ. One might surmise that a densely cellular organ would shrink less than one with a lot of intercellular space because of the compactness of the cells resisting collapse. These results may indicate that less silicone enters the cells and more is extracellular, since liver tissue has minimal intercellular tissue. It would be interesting to look at this plastinated tissue histologically and see if there was a significant decrease in cell size.