[Histonet] Bouins fixation problem

[Kim O'Sullivan]

Hi everybody,

We have used bouin's fixative for fixing mouse kidneys for years with no problem, and have recently been experiencing problems cutting them once they have been processed and wax embedded. The  kidney tissue has holes in it in the medulla region, is very difficult to cut(tissue brittle) and it appears almost like the wax has not infiltrated the kidneys properly. Additonally once the sections have been mounted on glass slides they appear fine but when we go to PAS stain them half of them come off the slides in solution (this has never happened before in the last 3 years)I have checked the processing schedule and that is fine (as is all the solutions) I have checked the temperature of the wax (which is fine). Does anyone out there know what our problem may be?? Additionally is there any way that any of the solutions used to make bouin's (picric acid, formalin and glacial acetic acid)can go off? And how would you check for this.

Would appreciate any help!!

Kim O'Sullivan