Casting of hollow spaces with solidifying materials and subsequent removal of surrounding tissues by corrosive alkali and acids and the inspection of the remaining casts by bare eyes or the dissecting microscope is an old anatomical technique.The introduction of polymerizing resins as casting materials which resulted in durable casts of even the smallest spaces (bile and blood capillaries) and the application of the scanning electron microscope with its high resolution and great depth of focus, enabled the qualitative and the quantitative analysis of the 3D-arrangement of tubular systems by means of their casts.Presently, scanning electron microscopy of microvascular corrosion casts is used to study growing, stable or regressing blood vessel systems under physiological (e.g. during development, wound healing, metamorphosis) and pathological (e.g. tumor angiogenesis) conditions in qualitative and quantitative terms.
Human uterine cervix microvascularization: Application of corrosion-casting and scanning electron microscopy
