[Histonet] paraffin to plastic embedding

[Gayle Callis]

I have cut 1 um paraffin sections rather than have to take the paraffin out
and put into GMA. If you don't remove the paraffin completely (several
changes of xylene and then a couple of 100% ethanol) I would think any
residual paraffin will cause polymerization problems. The tissue should be
only 1 mm thick for good infiltration and polymerization with GMA.  

Glycol methacrylate will be excellent for 1 um but try paraffin first. I
suggest you use an excellent disposable blade.  Our 1 um paraffin sections
were cut with AccuEdge, Sakura Finetek and either high or low profile will
work.  Make sure you block is cold, so you can get good firm support. 

IF you want to ever do immunostaining on plastic sections, then you should
use polymethylmethacrylate since it can be totally removed (GMA, once
polymerized, cannot be removed and is a poor embedding media for
immunostaining). 



At 03:07 PM 1/15/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello all,
>
>One of our researchers here has found some cool lesions in rabbit kidneys. 
>Now he is asking for 1 micron sections. We of course have only the FFPE 
>tissue.  Is it possible to take the paraffin tissue and re-embedd it into 
>plastic? What is recommended for future kidney lesions, type of plastic 
>etc? Thanks!!
>
>Kathy Cormier
>Division of Comparative Medicine
>MIT
>
>
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Gayle Callis
MT,HT,HTL(ASCP)
Research Histopathology Supervisor
Veterinary Molecular Biology 
Montana State University - Bozeman
PO Box 173610
Bozeman MT 59717-3610
406 994-6367 (lab with voice mail)
406 994-4303 (FAX)