[Histonet] is there a way to recover ruined tissues

[Shelly Christenson]

Patsy,
I have used this reprocessing schedule from Lee Luna's book "Histopathologic Methods and Color Atlas of Specials Stains and Tissue Artifact". This procedure has worked for me on a couple of occasions, You may need to change the times a little since your tissue samples are so small. Luna's book has a lot of information that is very helpful, and would be a good reference book to have in the lab. Hope this helps you out, give it a try.

Tissue Softening Solution
The following solution is used for softening dried tissue specimens prior to reprocessing or processing

      Formol-Sodium Acetate (Stock) Solution
Concentrated formalin (37%) solution    10 ml
Sodium acetate                                             2 gm
Tap water                                                     90 ml

     Formol-Glycerol (Working) Solution
Formalin-sodium acetate (stock)              90 ml
Glycerol (glycerin)                                      10 ml
 
       Reprocessing Schedule
Melt the paraffin blocks down
Place the tissue in 3 changes of xylene for 1 hour each
Place in 100% alcohol, 2 changes for 1 hour each
Place in 95% alcohol, 2 changes for 1 hour each
Place under running tap water for 20 minutes
Place in formol-glycerol working solution until tissue becomes soft (In most instances this will occur within 5-8 hours: extended exposure to the formol-gycerol will not harm tissue specimens)
Place the tissue in the process and proceed with routine Processing schedule. How ever it is not necessary for the tissue to go through the fixative stations on the processor


Best of Luck,
Shelly



 

Shelly Christenson HT (ASCP)

Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory

Histopathology

L-216 Mosier Hall

Kansas State University

785/532-4464

________________________________________
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu [histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] on behalf of Patsy Ruegg [pruegg <@t> ihctech.net]
Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2011 2:26 PM
To: 'histo net'
Subject: [Histonet] is there a way to recover ruined tissues

My tissue processor was loaded and although the technician thought they
started it, the next morning the tissues were found dry in the retort with
the processor not started.  Another technician just started the machine so
the tissues got processed as they would have been had it started the day
before.  The tissues look terrible, they shrank so much that the pieces
started coming out of the cassettes even though they were plenty large
enough in the first place.  The tissues were found to be very small and hard
but were embedded, sectioned and stained anyway (I was not informed about
this until I started questioning why the tissues looked so bad).



Of course the investigator is very upset that their tissues are ruined.
Does anyone know if there is any way to try and recovery these tissues?
They were mouse lungs and livers.  The livers are not as bad as the lungs,
the lungs were inflated and they look compressed and unrecognizable as lung
tissue.  If the investigator will ever speak to me again I am going to ask
for the blocks back and try melting them down and perhaps try to rehydrate
them somehow for reprocessing.



Regards,



Patsy



Patsy Ruegg, HT(ASCP)QIHC

IHCtech

12635 Montview Blvd. Ste.215

Aurora, CO 80045

720-859-4060

fax 720-859-4110

www.ihctech.net

www.ihcrg.org



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