[Histonet] re: cryostat sectioning

[Mollie Lange]

Hi Kathleen,
 
I feel your pain.  I've been cutting cryostat sections for almost 30
years, and sometimes it can be completely maddening for no discernible
reason.  
 
It could possibly be static as one Histonetter suggested.  A Japanese
fellow in our lab showed us that spraying Cytocool on the knife and roll
plate really works.  It's the ONLY thing that consistently works.
 
Are your tissue blocks cryoprotected in sucrose?  Have you tried a
freshly made solution of your cryoprotectant in case the original was
not made proplerly?
 
We are a research lab, and we always cut our fixed frozen sections for
immuno on a sliding microtome.  We find this method much easier than the
cryostat for fixed frozen. Do you have a sliding microtome available and
have you tried it?  
 
Good luck,
Mollie Lange