[Histonet] ready-to-use commercial staining solutions

[Helen Lam]

Dear all,
Our lab is thinking about switching to ready-to-use commercial stains.  =
And  I think there is  no  better place than the Histonet to gather =
opinions form Histo.people, right?
  1.. What are the pros and cons of using commercial staining solutions?
  2.. Are there anybody out there already using it?  Is it possible to =
replace most if not all of the 'home-made' reagents you regularly use in =
your stains by commercial products?  If yes/no, why?
  3.. Even if you are using commercial reagents, is it still necessary =
to keep a small amount of dyes and chemicals in stock as a 'back-up', =
just in case the supply of commercial reagents may become uncertain?
  4.. How do you test the commerical reagents and prove that it works =
satisfactorily on your sections / in your applications?
  5.. Are the price , quality and shelf-life acceptable?  (It would be =
apprecaited if you could also indicate what brand of what staining =
solution you are using.)
  6.. Considering the price, quality and shelf-life of commerical =
reagents, do you think they can satisfactorily replace 'home-made' =
stains in our setting?  We have 20-30 slides to do everyday by hand =
(mainly alcian blue, PAS, a few renal and liver penals every week, some =
requests for micro-organisms at times).  By switching to commercial =
reagents, we hope that we could reduce the amount or eliminate =
altogether the need to keep a stock of dangerous chemicals and dye =
powder.  This in turn should save us some storage space, =
money(especially for keeping stock of rarely used dyes or chemicals that =
may go bad after years of standing) and man-hours in  stain preparation.
So what do you think?  Any response to any of the above questions are =
welcome.  I look forward to hearing from you.  Thanks in advance!

Helen Lam
Tuen Mun Hospital
Hong Kong