Abstract

This study describes an improvement to the tannic acid (TA) fixation technique. A comparison of the result of improved method with that of the conventional method and an en bloc staining method, shows that this method has a unique effect for characterizing the elastic fibres of goatskin. Moreover, their morphology is related to the concentration of TA, and the greatest effect occurs at a concentration of 0.01%. This method has furnished an effective means for researching the ultrastructural changes of elastic fibres in hides and skins in leather manufacturing and their pathological changes in the biology and medicine fields.