Anat Histol Embryol. 2019;00:1–6. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ahe | 1 © 2019 Blackwell Verlag GmbH The desire of mankind to preserve organic tissue is as old as human‐ ity. Different embalming methods have been developed in the past, but none of them could be defined as perfect. Plastination is one of the most recent and most ideal preservation methods. Plastination is a method of preserving organic tissue commonly used in anatomy, to produce durable anatomical specimens of the entire body or body parts. Plastination has been developed for teaching as well as for research. Dr. von Hagens designed plastination as a ground‐break‐ ing technology for preserving anatomical specimens with reactive polymers in 1977 in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Heidelberg. The process was patented between 1978 and 1982. This method has proved to be a superior method for preservation of gross specimens. At the beginning of the plastination process, the tissue fluid is substituted with acetone, and in turn, acetone is substituted at a later stage by a polymer (von Hagens, 1979; von Hagens, Tiedemann, & Kriz, 1987). Optical properties of the plasti‐ nated specimens (opaque or transparent) and mechanical properties (smooth and flexible or hard) can be defined by appropriate polymer Received: 30 March 2019 | Revised: 22 July 2019 | Accepted: 9 August 2019 DOI: 10.1111/ahe.12493 SPECIAL ISSUE Plastination—A scientific method for teaching and research Mircea‐Constantin Sora 1 | Rafael Latorre 2 | Carlos Baptista 3 | Octavio López‐Albors 2 1 Centre for Anatomy and Molecular Medicine, Sigmund Freud University Vienna, Vienna, Austria 2 Department of Anatomy and Comparative Pathological Anatomy, Veterinary Faculty, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain 3 Laboratory of Plastination, Department of Medical Education, College of Medicine, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA Correspondence Rafael Latorre, Department of Anatomy and Comparative Pathological Anatomy, Veterinary Faculty, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain. Email: latorre@um.es Abstract Over the last four decades, plastination has been one of the best processes of pres‐ ervation for organic tissue. In this process, water and lipids in biological tissues are replaced by polymers (silicone, epoxy, polyester) which are hardened, resulting in dry, odourless and durable specimens. Nowadays, after more than 40 years of its devel‐ opment, plastination is applied in more than 400 departments of anatomy, pathology, forensic sciences and biology all over the world. The most known polymers used in plastination are silicone (S10), epoxy (E12) and polyester (P40). The key element in plastination is the impregnation stage, and therefore depending on the polymer that is used, the optical quality of specimens differs. The S10 silicone technique is the most common technique used in plastination. Specimens can be used, especially in teaching, as they are easy to handle and display a realistic topography. Plastinated silicone specimens are used for displaying whole bodies, or body parts for exhibi‐ tion. Transparent tissue sections, with a thickness between 1 and 4 mm, are usu‐ ally produced by using epoxy (E12) or polyester (P40) polymer. These sections can be used to study both macroscopic and microscopic structures. Compared with the usual methods of dissection or corrosion, plastinated slices have the advantage of not destroying or altering the spatial relationships of structures. Plastination can be used as a teaching and research tool. Besides the teaching and scientific sector, plas‐ tination becomes a common resource for exhibitions, as worldwide more and more exhibitions use plastinated specimens. KEYWORDS anatomy, education, plastination, research