[Histonet] Processing animal fat

[Grantham, Andrea L - (algranth)]

Peggy,
Is your whole program one hour or is each station one hour?

We had a project here a few years ago that we called "the bacon project" because we had whole chunks of pig skin with an implant and lots of fat in between the layers. It was fixed for a couple days in 10% NBF and then processed with one hour for each station starting in 70% ETOH and ending in 4 paraffins on a VIP. Turned out beautiful. Did trichromes and they were stunning - red, white and blue! The sections were big - about 2.5 cm square - took almost all of the space in the cassette.

Andi


On Mar 17, 2011, at 12:57 PM, Sherwood, Margaret wrote:

> My question is directed specifically to veterinary histologists or histologists
> who also do a fair amount of animal processing.  We are having a terrible time
> processing pig fat.  We had problems previously, but thought we had solved them.
> This latest project (pig skin with a lot of fat attached) came out awful.  The
> fat was not adequately processed:  couldn't section it, it just crumbled.  In
> the block, it appears white and crumbly.  The funny thing is some blocks came
> out all right, but most didn't.
> 
> PLEASE help!  Let me know how you process your animal fat (sp. Pig)! Is there a
> size issue (we trim it if it is greater than 5mm)?  We have gotten help from the
> histonet before and instituted these suggestions (i.e. let sit in formalin for
> 48 hours; put in cassettes in a 60 degree oven for 1-2 hours and then cool to
> room temp. Then process using a 1 hour program).
> 
> Any help would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks!
> Peggy
> 
> Peggy Sherwood
> Lab Associate, Photopathology
> Wellman Center for Photomedicine (EDR 214)
> Massachusetts General Hospital
> 55 Fruit Street
> Boston, MA 02114-2696
> 617-724-4839 (voice mail)
> 617-726-6983 (lab)
> 617-726-1206 (fax)
> msherwood <@t> partners.org 
> 
> 
> 
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