RITA - REGISTRY OF INDUSTRIAL TOXICOLOGY ANIMAL-DATA - GUIDES FOR ORGAN SAMPLING AND TRIMMING PROCEDURES IN RATS

RITA (Registry of Industrial Toxicology Animal-data) is a pathology da ta base for the collection of validated histopathological data on tumo urs and potentially pre-neoplastic lesions observed in laboratory rode nts. To enable a better comparison of information, standardized techni ques for the preparation of histological slides have been established for all organs. The current paper describes the guidelines for organ s ampling and trimming procedures applied in the RITA project, i.e. the number of sections to be taken, the direction in which an organ should be cut, the localization (anatomical site) from which a sample should be taken, and the size of an organ (or part of an organ) to be placed in cassettes for processing. Schematical illustrations and additional explanations are provided to support the proposed standardized proced ures in histology laboratories.