[Histonet] Fixing and IHC on PEG hydrgoels

[Stephens, Elizabeth Humes]

Dear Colleagues,
I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with fixing and performing immunohistochemistry on cells seeded onto PEG hydrogels. These are very hydrophilic gels and I have heard that, even with a very short fixation time, fixation causes any cells that were growing on the PEG gels to fall off! I
am trying to perform IHC on cells seeded onto these PEG hydrogels. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix these? Is there some fixative that works very quickly and would maintain the hydrophilicity of the PEG gel?

Thank you!!

Elizabeth Stephens
MD/PhD Student Baylor College of Medicine/Rice University