[Histonet] restaining of hematoxylin and eosin tissue sections

[Peter Smale]

I wonder if someone can assist me in solving this problem.I retrieved a hematoxylin and eosin/phloxine stained slide from 1998 and discovered it was faded.The tissue section was mounted in a coverslipping machine that uses coverslipping tape composed of cellulose triacetate and is coated on one side with resinous mountant.This is the procedure I followed to decoverslip,decolorise and restain: I placed the slide in acetone for 7 minutes to remove the coverslip and then put the slide in xylene for 6 hours to remove any residual resinous mountant.I took the slide through graded ethanols to water after which I decolorised with acid/alcohol for one minute, took the slide back to water and restained the nuclei with Gill's Hematoxylin ( for 5 min. ) and counterstained with a mixture of 2% eosin y and 1% phloxine B with 4 drops of conc. glacial acetic acid added ( for 3 min. ).The nuclear staining turned out pale and the counter stain was patchy almost as if something was blocking the tissue's ability to retain the dyes I cannot figure out why the tissue is not staining with the same intensity as it did in 1998.Please keep in mind the slide was left out in natural light for a while which resulted in it becoming faded.
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Peter Smale
Anatomical Pathology
National Health Laboratory Service
Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital
Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa
tel:   +2711 4898711
fax:  +2711 4898717 
e-mail: peter.smale <@t> nhls.ac.za

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