[Histonet] Frozen sectioning of pig skin

[Bascaramurty, Saro]

I have sectioned some formalin fixed, paraffin embedded pig skin blocks in the past, but never the fresh frozen pig skin blocks. The samples were frozen by the researcher in liquid nitrogen, but not covered in cryomatrix and have been stored in the deep freezer for over a year. I have now embedded those blocks in cryomatrix and wanted to prepare sections at 30um and 6-8um thickness. When I tried it, I had problems getting good quality sections in spite of using brand new blades. I tried lowering the temperature from -18 deg.C to -22 / -25 deg.C. I still couldn't get quality sections consistently. If anyone from histoland has some good tips to improve the quality of these sections, I would greatly appreciate it.


Thank you,

Saro Bascaramurty

Technical Officer
Institute for Biodiagnostics
National Research Council
435 Ellice Avenue,
Winnipeg, Manitoba. R3B 1Y6

Tel: 204-984-7166
Fax:204-984-6978
email:saro.bascaramurty <@t> nrc-cnrc.gc.ca