The statement 'Glucose, sucrose, and other oligosaccharides can be demonstrated easily in tissue sections' is:

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Not determinable
• D. Only glucose can be demonstrated easily

Answer: (B)

Carbohydrate visualization in tissue sections is limited by how tissues are fixed and processed. Routine fixation and paraffin embedding wash out and alter soluble sugars, so simple monosaccharides like glucose and even small oligosaccharides such as sucrose aren’t reliably preserved. That’s why they can’t be demonstrated easily in standard tissue sections. Some stains (for example, the PAS reaction) can highlight certain carbohydrate-rich substances like glycogen and mucopolysaccharides, but they don’t reliably reveal free glucose or other small sugars, and additional steps (like diastase digestion to distinguish glycogen) are needed. In short, the statement overstates what can be demonstrated easily; detecting these specific sugars in fixed tissue sections is not straightforward.