[Histonet] Golgi Cox

[Lee & Peggy Wenk]

Left over from a question from another histonetter from a couple of weeks
ago, where I added other questions to the end. I never got a reply, and I'm
really curious about the Golgi-Cox fixation technique - why it's used, how
the fixative is disposed of afterwards, why only researchers use it and
routine histology labs don't seem to, is there are IHC equivalent, etc. So
read below for my original comments and questions. I'd really love to hear
about this from researchers and non-researchers. (And figuring many people
are off over the holidays, it might be a slow enough time to get a dialogue
going on this topic.) I really don't know anything about this technique, and
would love to learn the WHY's of this procedure(the HOW's I can read in
books). Thanks.

"I have a couple of questions, for anyone in the Histonet community. This
Golgi-Cox fixation procedure comes up a on occasion on Histonet, mostly from
researchers. How do these labs dispose of the chemicals afterwards? Mercuric
chloride cannot be dumped down any sink, and most (but not all) water/sewer
treatment plants won't allow potassium dichromate to be disposed down the
sink either. And how do researchers dispose of the water and alcohol and
xylene in the processing afterwards, where mercuric chloride and potassium
dichromate are being pulled out of the tissue into the processing solutions?

Can't these tissues be fixed in formalin (or some other less toxic fixative
than mercury and chromium), and then IHC procedures done, such as antibodies
against GFAP or neurofilaments or NSE? I work in a hospital, and am just
wondering why this Golgi-Cox procedure is needed by researchers, but doesn't
seem to be needed by clinical histology laboratories."

Peggy A. Wenk, HTL(ASCP)SLS
William Beaumont Hospital
Royal Oak, MI 48073