Plastination

Plastination is a technique used in anatomy to preserve bodies or body parts. The water and fat are replaced by certain plastics, yielding specimens that can be touched, do not smell or decay, and even retain most microscopic properties of the original sample.

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Process

• Water and lipid tissues are replaced by curable polymers.
• Curable polymers used by plastination include silicone, epoxy and polyester- copolymer.
• Requires four main steps:The first step of plastination is fixation. This simply means that the body is embalmed, usually in a formaldehyde solution, in order to halt decomposition. After any necessary dissections take place, the specimen is then placed in a bath of acetone. Under freezing conditions, the acetone draws out all the water and replaces it inside the cells. In the third step, the specimen can then be placed in a bath of liquid polymer, such as silicone rubber, polyester or epoxy resin. By creating a vacuum, the acetone is made to boil. As the acetone vaporizes and leaves the cells, it draws the liquid polymer in behind it, leaving a cell filled with liquid plastic. The plastic must then be cured, either with gas, heat, or UV light, in order to harden it. A specimen can be anything from a full human body to a small piece of an animal organ, and they are known as "plastins".

Standard process of plastination.

• -Fixation
• -Dehydration
• -forced impregnation
• -hardening
• -Posing

History

In November of 1978 Dr. Gunther von Hagens applied for a US Patent. He proposed the idea of preserving animal and vegetable tissues permanently by synthetic resin impregnation. Since then Dr. von Hagens has applied for two more US Patents. The final one coming in May of 1982 when Dr. von Hagens received a Patent by the United States government for his work on preserving biological tissues with polymers. Since then the art form know as Plastination has been an ongoing battle of art vs. ethics. With the success of his Patents, von Hagens went on to form the Institute of Plastination in Heidelberg, Germany in 1993. The Institute of Plastination, along with Dr. von Hagens made their first showing of plastinated bodies in Japan in 1995, which drew over three million people (Barboza 3). Before Dr. von Hagens was made famous by his work on the human body exhibit Body Worlds, he was in partnership with another doctor by the name of Dr. Sui Hongjin. Since their split, von Hagens Body Worlds has taken in "over $200 million by displaying preserved, skinless human corpses with very well-defined muscles and sinewy tissues" (Barboza 1). Dr. Sui Hongjin has also found recent success with his own anatomy display called, Bodies...The Exhibition. However, it should be known that where Dr. von Hagens uses only donated bodies his protege Dr. Hongjin uses unclaimed bodies from Chinese mental hospitals, along with other bodies that were not able to be properly buried.

Other Plastination methods

• A. Core- tech room temp procedure
• B. Epoxy E12 procedure
• C. Polyester P35 (P40)- procedure

5. Plastination Galleries are offered in exhibits and numerous college medical schools A. Body Works Exhibit B. College exhibits: University of Michigan, Vienna University, etc.

Uses of plastinized bodies

Plastination is useful in anatomy as well as serving as models and teaching tools. Students who are enrolled in introductory animal science courses at many universities are finding the value in experimental learning in animal science through collection of multispecies large-animal management and production practicums. This practicum allowed students to have hands on experience in this field. Plastinated canine gastrointestinal tracts used to help in the teaching of endoscopic technique and anatomy. The plastinated specimens retain their dialated conformation by a positive pressure air flow, which allows them to be used to teach both endoscopic technique and gastrointestinal anatomy. The College of Veterinary Medicine in Raliegh, North Carolina used both PC (plastic coating) and PN (plastination) to investigate and compared the difference in the two methods. The PC method was simple and inexpensive, but the plastinated specimens (PN method) were more flexible, durable, and lifelike than those preserved by the PC method. The use of plastination allowed the use of many body parts such as muscle, nerves, bones, ligaments, and central nervous system to be preserved. The Department of Animal Science and Industry at Kansas State reconstructed the skeleton of an acutely laminitic Thoroughbred broodmare that the decision was to euthanize. The final project was a complete, mobile skeleton that will be used as a teaching aid in equine classes. With the use of plastination as a teaching method of animal science means less animals will have to be killed in the name of science, due to the fact that plastination process allows speciemens to last a long time.

Plastination, in comparison to the cheap and inexpensive plastic coating preserving process, has been found to be more flexible, durable, and life like. Mainstream preservation leaves the bodies' water in place and adds chemicals; plastination replaces water with polymers (silicone, epoxy, or polyester) that are then allowed to harden. Other methods have been in place for thousands of years to help with the decomposition of the body. Mummification used by the Egyptians is a widely known method which involves the removal of body fluid and wrapping the body in linens. Prior to mummification, Egyptians would lay the body in a shallow pit in the desert and allow the sun to dehydrate the body. Formalin, an important solution to body preservation, was introduced in 1896 to help with body preservation. Soon to follow formalin, color preserving embalming solutions where developed to preserve lifelike color and flexibility to aid in the study of the body. Paraffin impregnation was introduced in 1925 and the embedding of organs in plastic was developed in the 60s’. Body preservation methods current to the twenty-first century are cryopreservation which involves the cooling of the body to very low temperatures to preserve the body tissues, plastination and embalming. Plastination is used in hundreds of laboratories worldwide to help with the teaching and study of the body.

Ethical concerns

Concern over consent of bodies being used the plastination process has arisen. Over 20 years ago Von Hagen set up a body donation program in Germany and has signed over 7600 donors into the plastinate program: 461 have already died. The program has reported an average of one body a day being released to the plastination process. Ninety percent of the bodies donated have been German. German journalists investigated the bodies being inserted into the plastinate program and found that certain bodies were taken without consent. Although Von Hagens says he follows strict consent procedures for whole-body specimens, he maintains that "consent is not important for body parts." Von Hagen’s body donations are now being managed by the Institute for Plastination (IfP) established in 1993.

Other exhibitors

In 2004 the publicly traded US company Premier Exhibitions Inc. began their "Bodies Revealed" exhibition in Blackpool, England which ran from August through October 2004. In 2005 and 2006 the company opened their Bodies Revealed and Bodies The Exhibition exhibitions in Seoul (South Korea), Tampa (Florida) and New York (NY) respectively. Another exhibition site in 2006 was the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Houston (Texas). The West Coast exhibition site opened on June 22nd, 2006 at the Tropicana Resort & Casino Las Vegas NV. Exhibit now at Boston Museum of Science as of December 27th, 2006. http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/bodydonation/body_donation_program.html

Further reading

• "Heidelberg Plastination Folder" (Original title: "Heidelberger Plastinationshefter"). 1985/86, Institute for Anatomy at Heidelberg University
• Liselotte Hermes da Fonseca und Thomas Kliche (Hg.): Verführerische Leichen – verbotener Verfall. "Körperwelten" als gesellschaftliches Schlüsselereignis, Lengerich u.a.: Pabst Verlag 2006

Film references

• "China Turns Out Mummified Bodies for Displays" New York Times
• "Exhibit Human" a documentary on plastination by Aaron Edell