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The Veterinary Anatomy and Embryology research group has moved part of its plastics pieces to the University of Cambridge (England) where students have been able to work with this collection of the University of Murcia to improve their practices.
The work published in the journal Veterinary Journal Medical Education reflects the successful experience of this group of students in which the evaluation of the teaching application was made to prepare their practices and to better know the anatomy of the animals or organs they were dealing with in each moment.
The success has been such that both currently share an agreement for parts made in this University to be moved to Cambridge permanently for practical use by students.
What is this successful technique?
Plastination is based on extracting both the water and the fat layer from the organic tissues of animals and is replaced by silicone, polyester or epoxy.
Most of the pieces found in the Museum of Veterinary Anatomy have been plastinated with silicone techniques, whose processing can be extended up to a year in the largest specimens.
These techniques allow organs to retain their three-dimensional shape, for example, a heart not only maintains its external appearance, but also its inner chambers, atria, and ventricles.
"The main advantage, besides maintaining its real shape, is that they are dry parts that do not give off toxic vapors as opposed to those that are kept moist in formaldehyde, phenol or alcohol. They do not smell or need gloves for their use," he explains. Rafael Latorre, principal investigator of the project.
Any biological tissue is susceptible to be plastinated, recently they have requested the conservation of leaves of carved trees, from which the color can be maintained.
So far, the most curious piece that has been plastered in the laboratory of Murcia has been an orca heart that is part of an exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum.
In other laboratories with larger infrastructures, such as Dr. Gunther von Hugens, who patented this technique, have managed to plastinate even a blue whale heart.
For all those curious who want to see these pieces first hand, visits by external groups are accepted at the Anatomical Veterinary Museum (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine), although this is mainly focused on teaching.
Each winter an international course of plastination techniques is organized with teachers from the Universities of Amsterdam, Vienna or Tennessee, focusing on researchers in the field of human anatomy or veterinary and archeology who wish to learn this technique.
Within the Region, this research group has collaborated with the National Museum of Underwater Archeology (ARQUA) in Cartagena, where they have used plastination techniques to preserve defenses of Phoenician elephants rescued from the Bajo de la Campana, near Isla Grosa .
Traditionally, desiccation techniques are used for these archaeological materials, but they are not valid for submerged ivory.
Some of these plaster defenses have been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Source: Universidad de Murcia
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