[Histonet] RE: Prion Contamination

[Terri Braud]

Not only will processing NOT render it safe, but your cut, stained, and mounted slides will still be infectious UNLESS the procedure to inactivate using formic acid is followed before fixation and processing. If the tissue is fixed (formalin or other common fixatives) then you would be actually "fixing" the prion's ability to NOT be inactivated. 
Prions are nasty little beasties, and best left to dedicated labs that do nothing else. 
Please refer to the link below for the WHO pdf document which will give you procedures for handling prion infected patient's and tissues.  
http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/bse/whocdscsraph2003.pdf
Section 8.2.2 directly addresses the Histopathology techniques to be used when handling these tissues.
So much about these self replicating proteins is unknown, and more forms are added to the list all the time.  
Currently, the CDC recognizes 5 human forms, including, 
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) 
Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) 
Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker Syndrome 
Fatal Familial Insomnia 
Kuru 
There are also 6 Animal Prion Diseases:
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) 
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) 
Scrapie 
Transmissible mink encephalopathy 
Feline spongiform encephalopathy 
Ungulate spongiform encephalopathy
See the CDC link below for more information
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/prions/
and above all, Please, Please, Please be very careful.

Terri L. Braud, HT(ASCP)
Anatomic Pathology Supervisor
Laboratory
Holy Redeemer Hospital and Medical Center
1648 Huntingdon Pike
Meadowbrook, PA 19046
(215) 938-3676 phone
(215) 938-3689 fax
--- On Thu, 1/15/09, Joe Hardin <hardin <@t> oncology.wisc.edu> wrote:

From: Joe Hardin <hardin <@t> oncology.wisc.edu>
Subject: [Histonet] prion contaminated tissue processing
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Date: Thursday, January 15, 2009, 10:29 AM

Hi All,
Does anyone know if tissue processing for paraffin embedding will render prion
infected tissue safe for sectioning?

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