[Histonet] Fixation for FISH

[Adrienne Anderson]

Hello Histo-land,
I'm going to start doing FISH in our lab, but I've never done it before. I read that the PFA fixative solution should be made fresh; however, I have some PFA that is being stored in the -80 freezer (for less than a year). Does anyone know if this would be ok to use? And actually, if it is ok, I thought about making a batch of 3% PFA and aliquoting it into smaller containers to freeze and to use at a later time. The only reason I thought about doing that is that I've heard to make it can take awhile. But this is all new to me, so any and all help would be much appreciated.
I might as well add this as well: specifically, I'll be trying to optimize a protocol for Texas red-2-O-methyl-CAG probe with IF for the MBNL1 protein. I've read that combining these 2 methods can be tricky....and I've never done either of them! Is there anyone out there that can give me some advice?
Thanks!Adrienne