[Histonet] Intestinal Tissue Questions

[wbedale <@t> biochem.wisc.edu]

Hi to all of you,

I'm quite new to histology and have a few basic questions.

Here's what I'm doing:

Tissue:  mouse intestine;  small and large intestine is harvested, cut
open longitudinally, and rinsed with PBS prior to fixation; 3 cm lengths
are fixed.
Fixation: 10% formalin
Processing and embedding:  manual processing, paraffin embedding, 4-6
micron sections
Staining:  H&E staining

Two questions:

1.  After fixation, is it better to store my tissue (for ~1 month or so)
in fixative, or in 70% ethanol?

2.  I'm attempting to get transverse sections of the intestine;  sometimes
I notice that my tissue ends up inside out (mucosa facing outward).  I
think it may happen when I use a razor blade to cut the tissue
longitudinally vs. using scissors to make the longitudinal incision, and
am going to test that.  Has anyone had any experience with this?

Thanks for any advice.

Wendy

Wendy Bedale, Ph.D.
Assistant Scientist
Department of Biochemistry
University of Wisconsin-Madison
433 Babcock Dr.
Madison, WI 53706
608-262-3099 ext. 3266
wbedale <@t> biochem.wisc.edu