[Histonet] Xylene substitutes....again

[Connie McManus]

In response to your questions:

1)  I used to use Histoclear.  
2)  It was satisfactory for most tissues, but it made brain, liver,
spleen etc. very friable and hard to cut.  Also, I did not like the way
it performed in coverslipping my sections.  
3)I'm not certain I know what you mean by having the same "power" as
xylene... I assume this means ability to clear tissues in processing and
dehydrated slides and in deparaffinizing sections prior to staining.  I
thought it was mediocre as a deparaffinizer (required 10 minutes in 3
changes) and was not miscible with the mounting medium.  It was supposed
to be compatible with xylene or toluene based mediums, but I did not
find this to be true.  Maybe the manufacturer has a different concept of
"miscible" than mine.  I dunno.  Anyway... in the dehydration series on
the stainer, there seemed to be a lot of water absorption which made
changing each tub mandatory at the end of the day... and I live in a
very dry climate...

IMHO ...  avoid histoclear.  If you can use xylene, do it. 

Oh, I forgot.  That citrus odor was really nauseating.  


Connie McManus
Utah Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory
Utah State University
Logan, UT
Phone:  435/797-1891
fax: 435/797-2805


-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
[mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Marceau,
Gabriel (IAF)(LAVAL)
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 7:32 PM
To: 'histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu'
Subject: [Histonet] Xylene substitutes....again

I'd like to get further into a subject that was already debated on
Histonet:

Xylene substitues
1- Which one do you use or have you used before and have the results
been
satisfactory or not (maybe with a brief description of the specimen
used,
fixation, etc)?
2- Are these substitutes really better than Xylene,
safety/toxicology-speaking?
3- Do they all have the same power than Xylene (I read about one that it
had
the same chemical power as Xylene compared to the other version....so
the
other does what exactly then?)

I am interested in changing our Xylene for a substitute but I need to
convince people on that.

Thanks,

Gabriel Marceau
INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier
531, boul. des Prairies
Laval (Québec) H7V 1B7
Tél.: (450) 687-5010 poste 4282
Fax: (450) 686-5301

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