[Histonet] Humidity levels and IHC staining

[Morken, Timothy]

Renee, it can depend on where you are: Florida? 70, 80% humidity, no drying out. South Dakota, in winter? 10 percent humidity and you get drying problems.

Tim Morken
Supervisor, Histology, IPOX
UCSF Medical Center
San Francisco, CA, USA

-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Rene J Buesa
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 11:20 AM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu; Jason McGough
Subject: Re: [Histonet] Humidity levels and IHC staining

A good auto stainer (like DAKO) with adequate amounts of dispensed reagents during the correct periods of time should not experiment any drying out on the slides. Adequate humidity is required to be controlled during manual IHC, especially if done over a heated support. If because of any reason (including not leveled slides) you experiment drying out, the best way would be to have an open flat dish containing water but, again, that was never a problem for me using the DAKO auto stainer.
Which auto stainer are you using?
René J. 

--- On Fri, 2/17/12, Jason McGough <jmcgough <@t> clinlab.com> wrote:


From: Jason McGough <jmcgough <@t> clinlab.com>
Subject: [Histonet] Humidity levels and IHC staining
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Date: Friday, February 17, 2012, 2:09 PM


We are wondering what other labs are doing to control the humidity while IHC stains are being performed. We currently place wet towels and a small weigh boat with water in our Autostainer to help prevent our slides from drying out but that seems to not be enough, they still tend to dry out and produce background staining. What should the humidity level be at? Any help would be appreciated.

Jason McGough HT(ASCP)
Account Representative - Anatomic Pathology Clinical Laboratory of the Black Hills
2805 5th Street Suite 210
Rapid City, SD 57701
605-343-2267 Ext 127
605-718-3779 (Fax)
jmcgough <@t> clinlab.com




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