[Histonet] Re: What to do when there is no liquid nitrogen

[Brian Chelack]

Rather than fussing with iso-pentane in your -70 freezer you could just
place a metal block in the freezer for a few hours and freeze your tissues
in a small mold placed directly on top of it. The metal block will freeze
the tissues in a minute or so. I have done this with small biopsy materials
in OCT and have found the results to be adequate. I rarely have problems
with cracked OCT blocks that can occur when using liquid nitrogen. The key
is to keep the sample material as small as possible to allow for quick
freezing. You should run a small trial of normally frozen materials vs. the
alternate method before implementing. 

 

Brian Chelack
Special Projects Manager
Prairie Diagnostic Services Inc.
52 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B4
Phone (306) 966-7211
Fax (306) 966-7244
Email brian.chelack <@t> pds.usask.ca 

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