[Histonet] brain histology

[Geoff McAuliffe]

Without fixation by perfusion the interior architecture will not be 
worth looking at. Why are you using Carnoy? Yes, it gives quick 
penetration but not qucik enough to get all the way through to the 
interior unless you slice the brain. Perfuse with buffered formalin, 
slice into 5-10 mm sections and fix for several days to a week, formalin 
works slowly. Then process for paraffin. As Rene stated, forget storage 
in abs. alcohol. Ten micron sections is fine for CNS. Also, there is a 
lot of work done on bat brain in the literature.

Geoff

I-sanna Gibbons wrote:

>I am having a bit of trouble obtaining good quality slides of bat brains. The brains are fixed in Carnoy's, stored in absolute alcohol, processed routinely, infiltrated with paraffin, sectioned at 8 microns and stained using cresyl fast violet.  The aim is to record the cytoarchitecture.  The resulting slides show poor tissue integrity with extensive cracking.  Can anyone suggest how this can be avoided?  I was thinking maybe a double-embedding method for whole brains (10-15 mm) and thicker sections (25-30 microns)?
>   
>  Thanking you in advance
>   
>  I-sanna Gibbons, DVM
>  Veterinary Anatomy
>  School of Veterinary Medicine
>  The University of the West Indies
>  Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
>
>       
>---------------------------------
>Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
> Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.
>_______________________________________________
>Histonet mailing list
>Histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
>http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet
>
>
>  
>


-- 
--
**********************************************
Geoff McAuliffe, Ph.D.
Neuroscience and Cell Biology
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854
voice: (732)-235-4583; fax: -4029 
mcauliff <@t> umdnj.edu
**********************************************