Anatomy and Cell Biology

Korean Association of Anatomists (대한해부학회)
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The comparison of decrease in mice mass preserved with formalin 4% and neutralize with sodium bicarbonate

  • Florencia Evelyn (Undergraduate Program of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia) ;
  • Ria Margiana (Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia)
  • Received : 2021.11.22
  • Accepted : 2022.07.07
  • Published : 2022.12.31
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Abstract

Anatomy studies require cadavers to study the human body. Generally in Indonesia, the dead human body will be buried. This causes problems because the decomposition process of a cadaver that is preserved with formalin will be delayed and it causes environmental pollution. The toxicity of formalin can be reduced by neutralizing the formalin. This study aimed to compare the decrease of mice mass that were preserved with formalin then neutralized with sodium bicarbonate and those that were not neutralized. This study used 18 mice (Mus musculus) which were divided into 3 groups. They were the control group (not given preservative), group preserved with 4% formalin, and group preserved with 4% formalin then neutralized with sodium bicarbonate. All groups of mice were buried for 6 weeks. The changes in mass were assessed with an analysis of the percentage loss in mass. Based on the results of this study, the formalin group had a greater percentage of total mass reduction than the neutralize group. The formalin group had a higher decomposition rate than the neutralizing sodium bicarbonate group. The effectiveness of reducing the concentration of formalin is similar with neutralize group. Therefore, it can be concluded that 4% formalin is recommended for use to accelerate the occurrence of decay and decrease in mass.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

We are grateful and would like to give our best gratitude to Universitas Indonesia Research Grant, International Indexed Publication (PUTI) program 2020. This article was presented in the 5th International Conference and Exhibition on Indonesian Medical Education and Research Institute (5th ICE on IMERI), Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia. And we sincerely appreciate the 5th ICE on the IMERI committee, who has supported the peer-review and manuscript preparation before submitting it to the journal.

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