[Histonet] Re: from PLEASE HELP

[Michelle MacVeigh-Aloni]

Hi Delia,

Some time ago I used to work in a lab where I had to cut skin punch biopsies. They used to come floating in a special preservative. Unfortunately I don't remember its name, but then I had to wash them in a special wash solution for a minute. The wash solution was made by Zeus Scientific and was just citrate buffer. I am not familiar with the Michael's fixative and don't know do you have to wash after fixing.

The trick was to pat dry the biopsies with Kimwipes and immerse them right away in the OCT. Then let the biopsy sit there for few minutes. You can even move the tissue in the OCT from time to time and then transfer it to a new mold with fresh OCT. Freeze in liquid Nitrogen. 

This way, somehow the OCT starts infiltrating the tissue and the tissue cuts together with the OCT. I used to cut it at 5 microns. 
Hope that this will work for you too

Michelle
Research Specialist
USC Keck School of Medicine