Hawaii Coral Disease

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Histopathology

Co-investigator: Thierry Work (USGS)

Histopathology allows us to characterize the microscopic morphology of disease and will provide systematic evaluation of cellular changes that occur in disease, what tissues are affected, and whether foreign organisms (bacteria, metazoa, protistans, viruses) are visible. Histopathology provides a “first cut” in disease diagnostics and allows the investigator to narrow down possible etiologies for further investigation.

Coral studies

For histopathology, sections of corals are fixed in Z-fix and decalcified in dilute formic acid. Tissues are sectioned, dehydrated in alcohol series, embedded in paraffin, sectioned at 5 µm, placed on microscope slides and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Special stains are also used as appropriate to identify fungi, bacteria, algal filaments, or protozoa.

Fish studies

Fish are necropsied and samples taken of representative tissues including skeletal muscle, skin, spleen, gills, liver, and kidney. Samples are preserved in 10% formalin to be processed for histology at the USGS Honolulu field station. Intestinal tracts are frozen and processed for parasites at HIMB.

Photos