[Histonet] Sectioning in sliding microtome issues

[Rene J Buesa]

I used a Leica horizontal microtome. One of the ways of eliminating (pushing away) the piece of tissue at the end of the block is to reduce the angle of the sliding path of the steel blade and instead of placing it to move at 90ºC to the length of the microtome to about half (50ºC), reducing the "pushing" effect of the blade on the end border of the block.
René J.

From: Maria De Los Angeles Navas <maria.navas <@t> utah.edu>
To: "Histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu" <Histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu> 
Sent: Wednesday, April 3, 2013 9:06 PM
Subject: [Histonet] Sectioning in sliding microtome issues

Hello All,

We section fixed frozen brain that we mount on the microtome using either 30% sucrose or OCT and we keep the temperature down by surrounding the tissue with crushed dry ice constantly (every 10 minutes).

One of the problems I have had, and also the person who trained me also had, is that when getting towards the end of the block a big chunk of the tissue gets lose and ruins the sectioning of that last part. Any tricks, tips to make this better?

Also, this week the microtome has been skipping one section all together and cutting the next one twice as thick. We have a Thermo HM 450 microtome and I was wondering if people have experienced this problem with this same microtome (or others) and if you know what the problem could be and how to go around it. I don't think is temperature, while testing the microtome today I was being extra careful by keeping the temp constant, but you never know for sure.


Thanks sooo much,

Maria
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