preparat

Preparat is a term used in biology, medicine, and related fields to denote a prepared specimen or substance intended for examination or display. The form and scope of a preparat vary by discipline, but the core idea is a sample that has been processed to be analyzed or shown.

In microscopy and histology, a preparat most often refers to a slide-mounted specimen. It may be a tissue section, a cytology smear, or a whole-mount preparation. Such samples are typically fixed, dehydrated, embedded (in paraffin for light microscopy or prepared as frozen sections), cut into thin slices, stained to highlight structures, and mounted under a coverslip for viewing.

Key steps include fixation, processing, embedding, sectioning, staining, and mounting. Equipment commonly used includes a microtome or cryostat for sectioning, a staining station, and a microscope. Proper preparation preserves morphology and minimizes artifacts so that features of interest can be observed and, in clinical settings, used for diagnosis.

Outside microscopy, preparat can refer to any prepared substance. In some languages such as Polish, preparat means a drug or pharmaceutical preparation. The etymology traces to German Präparat, meaning prepared object or specimen.