[Histonet] Foetal/Fetal brain hardening.

[MTitford <@t> aol.com]

Steve Machine asks about hardening of fetal brains.

We had this problem once with soft mushy brains. We partially solved it by washing the brain all day in running water, then infiltrating the brain with  increasing strengths of gelatin at 37 degrees centigrade. (For example 0.5%, 2% and then 5%)over a couple of days. Then we drained off the gelatin and fixed it again for a couple of days. This added some firmness to the tissue. A disadvantage was it added some basophilia to the staining, but it was worth it.

Mike Titford
USA Pathology
Mobile AL USA