[Histonet] deparaffinized sections to air dry or not to air dry?

[Osborn, Sharon]

Betsy,
	A possible problem you could have with allowing the slides to air
dry after deparafinization is what we old techs know as "cornflake" effect.
I spent years doing both cytology and histology and saw quite a bit of
cornflaking on the cytology slides when the fixative was inadequately
sprayed.  (This was back when the scrape and smear technic was method of
choice--before the mono-layer technology.  Cornflake appearance looks just
like a piece of cornflake cereal was dropped on the slide.  Loose cells
exhibit it more than tissue sections; however, inadequate hydration will
produce similar brown artifact effect in tissue sections.  If you do airdry,
you need to be certain the sections are fully hydrated before continuing the
staining process.  Then, you may still have some sections that exhibit the
dark artifacts of not being fully hydrated or stained. 

sharon osborn
DNAX S-P BioPharma
Palo Alto, CA 



An: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Betreff: [Histonet] Paraffin sections

Hi,

  I have heard that paraffin sections that have been deparaffinized and run
down to DH20 but for some reason cannot be stained that day, can be left to
air dry and then be placed back into H2O when they are ready for staining.
Does anyone have any experience with this technique? I usually just leave
them in DH2O till I can get to them, usually the next day.

Thanks.

 

Betsy Molinari HT (ASCP)

Texas Heart Institute

Cardiovascular Pathology

6770 Bertner Ave.

Houston,TX 77030

832-355-6524

832-355-6812 (fax)


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