[Histonet] Breast tissue

[Laurie Reilly]

The major problem with processing fatty tissues, assuming that they are
fixed properly, is that Ethanol is not a good solvent for fat and therefore
connot penetrate the tissues completely, so the tissues are inadequately
dehydrated.
We have had some success with lipomas by adding a "degreasing" step of
xylene into the processing schedule.
70% ethanol
80% ethanol
90% ethanol
95% ethanol
Absolute ethanol
Xylene
Absolute ethanol
Xylene
Xylene
Paraffin
Paraffin
Paraffin
The first Absolute ethanol will dehydrate the tissue to some extent. The
next Xylene step will remove most of the fat and then the second Absolute
ethanol can complete the dehydration.

A compromise situation that we use routinely is to have Absolute ethanol,
50:50 Absolute ethanol:Xylene, Xylene This is not quite as effective but it
is less disruptive to the normal schedule and handles moderately fatty
tissues.

            Regards from Townsville, Australia.
                      Laurie.

Mr. Laurie REILLY
Histopathology
School of  Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences
James Cook University
Townsville  Qld.  4811
Australia.

Phone 07 4781 4468

-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
[mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of
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Sent: Tuesday, 10 February 2009 11:50 PM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] Breast tissue




Hello,    Do anyone have a better remedy to process fatty breast tissue
other than after processing pressing it in paper towels and then putting it
back in paraffin for a couple of hours.   The pathologist are saying this is
taking to long. 



Thanks, 




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