[Histonet] Polyester wax (with earlier citations)

[John Kiernan]

We tried Steedman's polyester wax in the early 1980s (Yes, 
after reading the early 1950s literature!). Powder rather 
than sections poured over the knife's edge. We gave up.

In the light of recent (1990s) advances, are there any
reasons for trying to master the lost art of sectioning
polyester wax? This embedding medium was introduced
shortly before the cryostat and long before antigen
retrieval. In one of Steedman's procedures polyester wax
was included in a one-step mixture with a Bouin-like
fixative.
After 24 hrs the liquid was cooled, and when it had set
you could trim the block and (he said) produce ribbons 
of sections.

Polyester wax reappeared in the 1970s, when it was widely
thought that immunohistochemistry worked best after little
or no fixation and avoidance of organic solvents, wax, 
heat etc. This didn't catch on despite being published in
classy journals. 
 
The comments from Stephen.Eyres <@t> sanofi-synthelabo.com
(cited below) should help those who try to cut polyester
wax. Clearly it's a difficult medium to handle. Are there
any purposes for which it must be used?
-- 
-------------------------------
John A. Kiernan
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology
The University of Western Ontario
London,   Canada   N6A 5C1
   kiernan[AT]uwo.ca
   http://publish.uwo.ca/~jkiernan/
   http://instruct.uwo.ca/anatomy/530/index.htm
_______________________________
Sarah Jones wrote:
> 
> I tried polyester wax years ago and came to the conclusion I needed to
> be cutting in a walk-in-cooler.  I never thought of keeping the knife
> and block in the fridge, but it make sense.  I second the vote for any
> other method.  Unless you love challenges and have the patience of a
> saint.
> 
> Sarah Jones HT(ASCP)
> Dept. of Vet. Anatomy & Public Health
> Histology Lab
> Texas A&M University
> College Station, TX 77843-4458
> phone: 979-845-3177
> fax:  979-458-3499












> 
> >>> <Stephen.Eyres <@t> sanofi-synthelabo.com> 5/4/2004 10:44:42 AM >>>
> 
> Hi Rebecca,
> 
> Many, many years ago I used 37 degree C MPT polyester wax. There are
> several major problems using the stuff. Key one is temperature. Blocks
> and
> knife were kept in the fridge, with both brought out just prior to use
> -we
> used a Cambridge rocker which meant transfer of knife to and from the
> fridge was easy. In the summer in our lab which had no air
> conditioning,
> there are minutes of cutting time available before the block and kife
> warms
> up and sectioning has to stop. One paper I read partly overcame this
> narrow
> curring window by using a flower sieve packed with dry ice suspended
> above
> the microtome. our resources did not stretch that far in those days
> (mid
> 70's). Once you have your sections, we had to use a starch based
> adhesive
> which was added to the slide and sections floated directly onto the
> pool of
> adesive. The trick was to ensure one end of the ribbon overlapped the
> end
> of the slide so that after the short period of time the sections took
> to
> expand and de-crease, the slide could be tipped allowing the adhesive
> to
> run away leaving a nice ribbon on the slide. The rest was easy!!
> 
> Having read all of this, it comes as no surprise that my advice is to
> try
> every other option for getting what you want first.
> 
> Best of luck.
> 
> Steve
> 
> 
> 
> 
>                       Rebecca Nishi <rnishi <@t> uci.edu>
> 
> 
>                       Sent by:                               To:
> <Histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu>
> 
>                       histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouth         cc:
> 
> 
>                       western.edu                            Subject:
> [Histonet] Mouse and rat injured spinal cord - polyester wax
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>                       04/05/2004 16:19
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Has anyone used polyester wax embedding for mouse or rat injured
> spinal
> cord. We would like to use a low melt wax instead of paraffin or
> plastic to
> preserve some of the antigens we are interested in, but we also are
> interested in doing stereology, so we want consistent and a complete
> set of
> sections. Also, the injured area poses many problems for sectioning.
> 
> Does anyone have any tips for cutting and staining with this wax? I am
> going
> to use a rotary microtome.
> 
> Thanks Rebecca
> 
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