[Histonet] bone marrow decal for insitu & immuno

[Elaine Dooley]

Dear Histonetters,

We have been using Decal Stat (from Decal Corporation) on our bone
marrow biopsies.  It is HCL , EDTA and water.  The sections stain well
for most immunohistochemistry.  But we would like to insitu
hybridization for EBER and Kappa and Lambda.  We have these tests
working well on lymph nodes but they do not work on our bone marrow
biopsies.  I tested some bone marrow from an outside hospital and did
get good Kappa and Lambda insitu staining.  They use a formic acid decal
mixture.  (1000 cc 88%formic acid, 900cc water, 100cc 37% formaldehyde
place bone marrow in decal 2 hours).  So I processed and decalcified
some bone marrow in this way and the insitu hybridization worked well. 
But the morphology on H&E is not as good as when we processed with stat
decal.  We have some Formical from Decal Corporation I could try.  Does
anyone use this to decal there bone marrow biopsies?  If so how long? 
Or is there another formic acid based decal anyone would recommend that
does not effect morphology upon H&E staining negatively?

Elaine Dooley
352-265-0111 ext 72117