[Histonet] will reembed frozen tissue in OCT affect the histology

[Tony Henwood]

It is possible that the tissue has "freeze-dried".

If you melt the specimen and re-embed in OCT you might find severe drying artefact, rendering poor morphology (though most enzymes would not be affected).

I would advise you to look at a recent article in Journal of Histotechnology that describes a new method to transport muscle biopsies in Aedesta(tm)-cell/tissue preservation (ACTP) media.
The authors also found that the immersion in ACTP of previously frozen muscle with extensive artefacts significantly reduced ice crystal artefacts and restored original sarcoplasmic morphology and enzymatic activity (Horkayne-Szakaly et al (2009) "Nonfrozen Transport Medium Preserves and Restores Skeletal Muscle Enzymatic Activity and Morphology" J Histotechnol 32(2):49-53)

Regards 
Tony Henwood JP, MSc, BAppSc, GradDipSysAnalys, CT(ASC), FFSc(RCPA) 
Laboratory Manager & Senior Scientist 
Tel: 612 9845 3306 
Fax: 612 9845 3318 
the children's hospital at westmead
Cnr Hawkesbury Road and Hainsworth Street, Westmead
Locked Bag 4001, Westmead NSW 2145, AUSTRALIA 

-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of wenyi zhang
Sent: Thursday, 11 August 2011 7:45 AM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] will reembed frozen tissue in OCT affect the histology 

I have some old frozen tissue block embedded in OCT and kept in -80. When I used cryostat to cut the sections, I found the block hard and brittle, the tissue inside block is coiled or look like a network. Is something wrong with the embedding? Can I reembed the tissue in new OCT? 
Thanks for any reply!
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