{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,27]],"date-time":"2026-02-27T05:07:10Z","timestamp":1772168830176,"version":"3.50.1"},"update-to":[{"DOI":"10.12688\/f1000research.122598.1","type":"new_version","label":"New version","source":"publisher","updated":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,9]],"date-time":"2023-11-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1699488000000}},{"DOI":"10.12688\/f1000research.122598.2","type":"new_version","label":"New version","source":"publisher","updated":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,9]],"date-time":"2023-11-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1699488000000}}],"reference-count":26,"publisher":"F1000 Research Ltd","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,9]],"date-time":"2023-11-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1699488000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"College of Medicine and Health Science, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman.","award":["IG\/MED\/ALIE\/18\/01"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["IG\/MED\/ALIE\/18\/01"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["f1000research.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["F1000Res"],"abstract":"<ns3:p>\n                    <ns3:bold>Background:<\/ns3:bold>\n                    In routine histopathology, 10% neutral buffered formalin (NBF) is the choice fixative. However, formalin is a human carcinogen, so there is a necessity for a safer alternative. To the best of our knowledge, neutral honey, not natural or artificial honey, has not been tested to fix histological samples. This study determined the effectiveness of neutral buffered honey and other types of fixatives to fix histological tissues.\n                    <ns3:bold>Methods:<\/ns3:bold>\n                    The study was conducted between July 2019 and August 2020 at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. Sections from three rat livers, kidneys, and stomach tissues were fixed with 10% NBF, neutral buffered Sumer honey, neutral buffered date honey, formalin, Sumer honey, date honey, alcoholic formalin, alcoholic Sumer honey, and alcoholic date honey for 24 hours. Samples were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&amp;E), special stains, and vimentin methods. Three expert biomedical scientists then evaluated the fixed and stained samples for the quality of all sections. The fixation ability of the different honey solutions was then compared to 10% NBF and the utility was determined using nuclear and cytoplasmic criteria, specificity, and intensity.\n                    <ns3:bold>Results:<\/ns3:bold>\n                    H&amp;E showed adequate staining in all groups compared to 10% NBF. The specificity and intensity of all groups for the Periodic acid\u2013Schiff method were identical to 10% NBF except for Sumer honey and alcoholic date honey. Vimentin showed comparable findings with 10% NBF as there were no significant differences.\n                    <ns3:bold>Conclusions:<\/ns3:bold>\n                    The findings of this study encourage the use of honey, including neutral, as a possible safe substitute fixative for formalin, however, further experiments on larger specimens should be conducted.\n                  <\/ns3:p>","DOI":"10.12688\/f1000research.122598.3","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,9]],"date-time":"2023-11-09T11:25:06Z","timestamp":1699529106000},"page":"1014","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.12688\/f1000research.crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Effectiveness of neutral honey as a tissue fixative in histopathology"],"prefix":"10.12688","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9421-0951","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nasar","family":"Alwahaibi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Buthaina","family":"Al Dhahli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Halima","family":"Al Issaei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Loai","family":"Al Wahaibi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Shadia","family":"Al Sinawi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"2560","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","first-page":"ZM01-3","article-title":"Transit fixatives: An innovative study.","volume":"9","author":"M Rajanikanth","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. 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[Dataset]."}],"container-title":["F1000Research"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/11-1014\/v3\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/11-1014\/v3\/pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/11-1014\/v3\/iparadigms","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,27]],"date-time":"2024-02-27T12:40:21Z","timestamp":1709037621000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/11-1014\/v3"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,9]]},"references-count":26,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.12688\/f1000research.122598.3","relation":{"has-review":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.5256\/f1000research.158419.r220717","asserted-by":"subject"},{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.5256\/f1000research.158419.r220717","asserted-by":"object"}]},"ISSN":["2046-1402"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2046-1402","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,9]]},"assertion":[{"value":"Indexed","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/11-1014\/v3#article-reports","order":0,"name":"referee-status","label":"Referee status","group":{"name":"current-referee-status","label":"Current Referee Status"}},{"value":"10.5256\/f1000research.153237.r189341, Marie-Odile Benoit-Biancamano, Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Qu\u00e9bec, 02 Nov 2023, version 2, 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/11-1014\/v2#referee-response-189341","order":0,"name":"referee-response-189341","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"<b>Nasar Alwahaibi<\/b>; \n<i>Posted: 05 Nov 2023<\/i>; We would like to thank the reviewer further for the comments.  Figure 4 seems to have been submitted in low resolution and appears blurry.  \n<b>Response<\/b> \n<b>Figure 4 has been replaced with a better resolution.<\/b>  Minor comments Abstract (conclusions): The findings of this study encourage the use of honey, including neutral buffered honey, as a possible safe substitute fixative for formalin, however, further experiments on larger specimens should be conducted.  \n<b>Response<\/b> \n<b>As suggested, the conclusion has been modified.<\/b>","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/11-1014\/v3#referee-comment-10526","order":1,"name":"referee-comment-10526","label":"Referee Comment","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"10.5256\/f1000research.153237.r211041, Samah Kandeel, Histology & Cell Biology, Tanta University, Tanta, 26 Oct 2023, version 2, 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/11-1014\/v2#referee-response-211041","order":2,"name":"referee-response-211041","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"<b>Nasar Alwahaibi<\/b>; \n<i>Posted: 01 Nov 2023<\/i>; \n<b>We would like to take this opportunity to express our thanks to the reviewer for the positive feedback and helpful comments.<\/b>  \n<b>Below are our responses, point-by-point to the queries of the reviewer.<\/b>  Effectiveness of neutral honey as a tissue fixative in histopathology is a very attractive topic to avoid the carcinogenic effect of formalin as it is already the commonly used fixative at histology Lab.  However, some issues are raised; one of them is that the way that we can obtain Sumer honey&nbsp;as author mentioned it is very costly and difficult to be obtained and any applicable materials should be easily obtained.  \n<b>Response<\/b> \n<b>Thank you. Unfortunately, Sumer honey is expensive as usually found in the caves of the mountains, therefore, it is difficult to obtain. It has been tested as it is common in Oman (already mentioned in the Study Design section. However, this study showed that the application of it as a tissue fixative to replace formalin is encouraging.<\/b>  Also, the preferred pH for tissue fixation should be between 6-8; while at the present research authors used pH of the prepared fixatives &quot;The pH for these fixatives were 7.20, 7.25, 7.27, 3.62, 3.56, 5.15, 3.95, 5.0, and 5.85, respectively.&quot; so, I think pH monitoring should be considered.  \n<b>Response<\/b> \n<b>We measured the different pH for the evaluated nine groups of fixatives, just to show the readers that the tested honey fixatives have a similar pH to that of the<\/b>\n<b> gold standard fixatives.<\/b>  Figure 1: needed to be at higher magnification to be show the tissue details clearly.  \n<b>Response<\/b> \n<b>As suggested, a new Figure 1 with a higher magnification has been added.<\/b>  Figure 4: negative immunohistochemical image is needed; also testing another immunohistochemical marker should be applied as vimentin reaction is not so obvious at this figure.  \n<b>Response<\/b> \n<b>We can add a negative staining picture for vimentin but this looks different from other figures as we present a representative picture for each fixative group and we do not have a negative group in this study. We have chosen vimentin as an immunohistochemical marker for evaluation. In routine immunohistochemistry, this marker is used as an internal control for detecting cytoplasmic staining.<\/b>","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/11-1014\/v3#referee-comment-10498","order":3,"name":"referee-comment-10498","label":"Referee Comment","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"10.5256\/f1000research.158419.r220717, Phyu Synn Oo, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, 27 Feb 2024, version 3, indexed","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/11-1014\/v3#referee-response-220717","order":4,"name":"referee-response-220717","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"This work was supported by a research grant from the College of Medicine and Health Science, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman (IG\/MED\/ALIE\/18\/01; assigned to Alwahaibi Nasar). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.","order":5,"name":"grant-information","label":"Grant Information"},{"value":"This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.","order":0,"name":"copyright-info","label":"Copyright"}]}}