[Histonet] Manual processing of radioactive mouse brains

[Jamie E Erickson]

Hello histoneters,
                                   I have a question for anyone out in 
histoland that manually processes tissue. I have a study that will be 
using radioactive I125 mouse brain tissue and I don't want to process 
these in our Lecia TP 1050 auto processor for risk of contaminating the 
unit. The other researcher in the lab  would not like me much if 
contaminated our only processor......
 So I need a good quick manual process protocol for brain, spinal cord, 
liver tissues. I have been using paraformaldehyde fixed frozen brains and 
sectioning on the cryostat but I want the best morphology and best 
sections I can get so I'm thinking of trying paraffin.  Should I use a 
desiccation/vacuum chamber to increase my infiltration? Since I'm using 
I125  with a 1/2 life of 59 days I want to get these processed quickly so 
I can do microautoradiography...

Any help is greatly appreciated...

Thanks

Jamie

_______________________________
Jamie Erickson
Sr. Research Associate II
Department: DSMP
Abbott Bioresearch Center
100 Research Drive
Worcester, MA 01605-4341
508-688-3134
FAX: 508-793-4895
e-mail: jamie.erickson <@t> abbott.com