[Histonet] Control slides for Oil Red O

[Gagnon, Eric]

I was always of the opinion that since a delipidized frozen section, treated with toluene/methanol, run in parallel with the patient slide constituted adequate control.  Recently though, I've mellowed and realized that only shows a difference in staining between the two slides, not the effectiveness of your stain.  Using a piece of fat for a control slide confirms microscopically what we can confirm macroscopically...yep, it's a piece of fat.  
 
The adrenal and skin ideas sound better to me than using a piece of breast/fatty tissue. 
 
 The era of performing staining methods without controls seems to be at an end, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
 
Eric Gagnon MLT
Histology Laboratory
Kingston General Hospital
Kingston, Ontario,Canada