[Histonet] RE: Histonet Digest, Vol 87, Issue 5

[Jean-Martin Lapointe]

Hi Shu,
I would stay away from zinc fixatives if I were you. It does a very poor job of preserving tissue integrity. There's nothing too esoteric in the cells you need to stain, so formalin fixation should be fine for this.

Jean-Martin Lapointe
Accellab Inc
 
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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2011 13:28:47 -0500
From: "Chen, Shu-Cheng" <shu-cheng.chen <@t> merck.com>
Subject: [Histonet] Rat lung histology for mast cells and eosinophils
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Hi,

We are called to support an asthmatic rat lung project and need to stain for mast cells, eosinophils, neutrophils and possibly other inflammatory cells, such as Th2 cells etc. Any suggestions you can give us in terms of fixatives and special stains or IHC are very much appreciated. From my search, it seems that Carnoy's fixative with toluidine blue is the way to go for mast cells. But can one clearly differentiate eos from neuts with this fixative or a formalin fixed H&E stained lung section? If we need to do Trichrome, PAS, May Grunwald Giemsa and H&E etc. what would be the best fixative to accommodate these stains?

BTW, I heard that formalin free Zn-fixative is good for IHC. Will it be good for all these stains above?

Sorry for so many questions. It shows how little experience I have in this area.

Thank you,
Shu