[Histonet] Excessively Wrinkled sections

[louise renton]

Dear Nick, John et al,

Further to this discussion, increasing the temp of the waterbath does help 
up to a point in flattening sections, especially if, as you point out, 
distilled or deionised water is used.
However, it was my expereience that certain tissues, most notably 
hypertrophic thyroid, remained wrinked even at higher temps. These sections 
I would pick up and then "flash melt" on the hotplate for a few seconds and 
then allow to drain normally. This had no deleterious effect on either 
morphology or staining , and produced a flatter more aesthetically pleasing 
section.

As far as high water bath temperatures are concerned, we had debates raging 
for many months in our lab as to the possible destruction of antigenic 
epitopes by excessive incubation to melt & dry sections. Then Heat assisted 
epitope retrieval came on the scene and knocked that argument flat, and it 
was determined that excessive fixation was the real culprit.. Thus does  the 
world around us change.

Best regards,

Louise Renton
Johannesburg
South Africa

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