[Histonet] Re: Mouse liver fixation

[Gayle Callis]

Andrew,

We had terrible problems with mouse liver when  whole livers were immersed 
in only 50 ml neutral buffered formalin and left to sit around.  The tissue 
brought in a week later was NOT fixed internally, it was still red.   If 
you can perfuse the animal, dissect out liver and immerse into formalin 
1:20 volume.   Or fix for a day, take liver out, slice it and return to 
fresh formalin.

Liver is very homogenous, dense and surprisingly takes a longer time to fix 
than mouse lung.  If liver is dissected out,  bread slicing it for  better 
fixation is advisable.  Slices are embedded cut sides down unless you want 
to embed a whole liver - a rather large chunk of tissue for such a little 
critter.  If you plan on a whole liver, be sure to change the fixative 
after a day or so to replenish the formalin and this is advisable with 
sliced liver too.

Whatever you do, make sure fixative can reach internal parts of liver or 
you get some autolyzed tissue.



At 05:12 AM 2/1/2005, you wrote:
>Dear All
>
>Thanks for your great advice last time on fixing mouse lungs. You'll be 
>glad to know we've got it working and have some nice H+E slides and the 
>immunos will be staring soon.
>Can you help again? My boss has decided to look at the mouse's liver as 
>well (poor thing!) and I'd be grateful if you have any tips on fixing 
>liver. Can you just remove the liver and place it in a vial of formalin or 
>does it need perfused etc?
>Looking forward to hearing from you all again.
>Regards
>Andrew
>
>Andrew MacDuff
>Clinical Research Fellow
>Wilkie Laboratory
>Medical School
>Edinburgh University
>Teviot Place
>Edinburgh
>andrew.macduff <@t> ed.ac.uk
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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)