[Histonet] Washing out formalin fixation

[Johnson, Teri]

Regardless of the application, I have been taught that formalin fixation can be washed out if you take fixed tissues and store them in water or an aqueous solution, or wash them in running water (might take days to accomplish). The question was, and still is, what is the chemical mechanism for this. Mark gives a plausible explanation.


From: Rene J Buesa [rjbuesa <@t> yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 7:45 AM
To: Mark Tarango
Cc: Johnson, Teri; histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: Re: [Histonet] Washing out formalin fixation

Mark:
I think you are right in assuming that Teri was referring to some sort of antigen retrieval but, if that was the case, it was a quite obscure way of asking and that is why I thought that she was referring to "washing out the formalin" because many researchers hate the smell of formaline and perhaps wanted to have a less "odorous" specimen to handle.
I think that perhaps some antigen retrieval could be obtained by wahing the sections but perhaps the risk of losing the section (peel off) is very big this way.
René J.

Mark Tarango <marktarango <@t> gmail.com> wrote:





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