[Histonet] Re: Do I have to destabilize MMA?

[Dorothy Hu]

Thanks Jack's answer. I though I shouldn't to destabilization step as well.
But my boss wants to do it. Is there a chemical theory behind this? Why
previous protocol has this step (it must be reason)? And why the step is
skipped now?  I wish I know before approaching my boss.

Additionally, there is a problem always bothering me in plastic sectioning.
I often get cortical bone shattering ( crumbly) in the midshaft of long
bone. Cortical bone and marrow are operate in the midshaft. I don't know
why is that. It's not happen in the two ends of tibia and femur bone. And
doesn't happen on ankle bones. Is that because the bone was stored in 70%
EtOH too long (~one year)? I think infiltration is good since I did three
times, 2 days each infiltration under vacuum condition in 4oC. If I use 40%
EtOH to fix and store the bones will help?

One more question. What is advantage if I use perkadox 16 to replace BP as
catalyst? Do I have to dry MMA//DBP/perkadox 16 mixture through CaCl2?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dorothy
MGH endocrine histocore


On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 11:02 PM, <abtdhu <@t> gmail.com> wrote:

> I am new to MMA plastic bone technique. Some one gave me his protocol, in
> which has NaOH and d-water to wash MMA mixture before drying it in CaCl2.
> But others told me I don't need to do the destabilization step. Could any
> expert in this area to tell me if this step is necessary? And why have to
> do?
>
> Sent from my iPad