Explantations

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Removal of living tissue, cells, or organs from an organism for study or transplantation ; detailed descriptions of the process or reasons for such removal
2. The act of extracting biological material from its original environment for research or medical use ; comprehensive accounts of why or how this extraction is performed
3. Taking out portions of biological specimens from their native contexts for analysis or transfer ; systematic explanations regarding the procedures and purposes behind these actions

Etymology: "Explantations" is simply the plural of "explantation", a noun meaning the removal of tissue from a living body or from a culture, usually for examination or study. The base word, "explant", is a verb-and-noun pair formed from the Latin prefix "ex-", meaning "out of", combined with "planta", meaning a plant or a sprout, which in biological usage came to mean a piece of living tissue taken out of an organism. The suffix "-ation", borrowed through Old French from Latin "-atio", turns the action into a noun, so "explantation" names the act of taking out and "explantations" refers to several such acts or procedures.

Synonyms: tissue cultures, biological explants