[Histonet] Frozen sectioning of pig skin

[Bascaramurty, Saro]

No, I did not. We are using Fisher's Thermo Shandon brand Cryomatrix. We will order this for next time and I will try and re-do the embedding after thawing it. Should I lightly rinse the block and pat-dry before re-embedding? 

Thank you,
Saro  

-----Original Message-----
From: Joel Israel [mailto:JoelI <@t> mcclainlab.com] 
Sent: March 22, 2011 9:22 AM
To: Bascaramurty, Saro
Subject: RE: [Histonet] Frozen sectioning of pig skin

Did you thaw the tissue before you embedded in media?  If not, try it.
I use NEG-50 from Richard-Allan Scientific to embed frozen tissue.  I have found it to be superior to others.

-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
[mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Bascaramurty, Saro
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 10:00 AM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] Frozen sectioning of pig skin


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


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