[Histonet] OCT embedded Tissue Storage

[Cheryl]

Hi!
   
  I worked at a research lab that had limited space but horded tissue like gold (because it was like gold!!).  We cut a square of foil (the precut pop-up kind from the cafeteria works fine) and another from parafilm.  We stuck a paper label to the block with OCT, knocked the block off the chuck, sealed it in the parafilm (labeled in Sharpie) then wrapped it in the foil sealing the edges by rolling and pressing them and afixing a label freezer sticker (test your regular labels, they may work).  
   
  It was awesome because the size of the tissue/OCT block when wrapped fit into the cardboard block file drawers with the outer boxes now in popular use.  The outer boxes stayed in the freezer so we could access all blocks without digging through piles or ziplock bags full of stuff and they fit tight and stayed cold even when pulling them out to handle them.  When sorting through boxes, we pulled them out onto our ice trays with foil on them to keep the box dry and allowing a longer open time.
   
  Like Rene mentions--sealing is the most important bit.  And not loosing the ID. 
   
  Hope this helps!
   
  Cheryl
  

Rene J Buesa <rjbuesa <@t> yahoo.com> wrote:
  Mathew:
In my lab we used to have a "tissue back" for teaching/reference purposes.
All tissues were kep in OCT at -80ºC in a freezer, and we used to have tissues more than 15 years old.
When needed, they were FS without any problem.
René J.

Mathew DeGutes wrote:
I have a couple questions. In the lab I work in we have started to accumulate a number of
experiments worth of tissue blocks that we would like to keep for reference at later dates.
Generally tissue survives better while still embedded in a block than when in slide form, so I was
curious as to what sorts of methods others here employ to keep order and good preservation of
blocks in -80s? Up until now we have been just keeping individual sets of blocks in Ziplock bags,
but it has gotten to be unwieldy. I am looking for any suggestions of a good way to keep the
blocks well preserved and easily recovered in -80s.



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Cheryl Kerry, HT(ASCP) 
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