[Histonet] Stripped H&E's - HELP!

[Jo-Ann Bader, Ms.]

Hi All,

Over the past year we have had a recurring problems with our H&E's.  The come out of our Gemini Stainer stripped but not on every run; we can go for months without a problem and then all of a sudden it is back again.  The stripping is in the Eosin, our pathologist confirms the the hemotoxylin is not affected.  There are 3 of us cutting on 3 different microtomes.  The age on the microtomes range in age from 10 years to less than 1 year. 

Some of the solution we have tried are:

We numbered all our racks to see if some of our older racks may have micro cracks in them that may retain solution which gradually dripped onto the slides.  After checking for over a month there was no pattern to  racks and bad staining.

We tried lowering the level of the solutions to below the coated end of the slides.  No results

We tried changing the positions of the pots for the solutions,  thinking that if there was a leak from the solutions above we would notice a difference.  No luck.

We checked to see if the stripes only appeared near the end of our stains life.  Not that either

Right now I have a technician sitting in front of the stainer as it runs to see if she can catch any abnormalities in the way the machine is transferring the slides.

We rotate our alcohols every run.

We change every solution after every 450 slides.

I have put a call into the company to see if I can get to speak to a specialist on this machine but in the mean time I was hoping someone out there could help.  Has anyone seen such a problem

I, we, have run out of ideas aside from it being the machine and not being able to find out exactly how.


Jo-Ann Bader
Histology Co-Ordinator
Goodman Cancer Centre
McGill University 1160 Pine Ave. W - Rm 312 (3355)
Montreal, QC, Canada
H3G 1Y6
Tel: 514-398-8270