[Histonet] Elephant Tissues

[Jennifer Phinney]

Hi Paula,
One of my pathologists thinks it could be the collagen in the tissues making them difficult to cut.  We have tried nair, fabric softener, and even decaling the tissues and nothing helps.  The tissues shred immediately when trying to section making it impossible in some cases to actually get a slide. When I melted a particularly difficult block down to separate out the different tissues, it turned out to be the lymph node that was the worst.

We are going to try some of the cream you use to soften scar tissues to see if that has any effect.

As a veterinary histology lab we routinely work on a variety of different species, and so far the elephant tissue is the only one giving us problems.

Thanks for everyone’s help,
Jennifer

From: P Sicurello <patpxs at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 5, 2018 4:46 PM
To: Jennifer Phinney <jhill at vet.k-state.edu>
Cc: HistoNet <Histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu>
Subject: Re: [Histonet] Elephant Tissues

Jennifer,

I have worked on mouse, rat, rabbit, sea lion, harbor seal, killer whale, giraffe, and even human mummy tissues.  With the exception of the mummy tissue being a bit dry, they all embedded and cut like human tissue.

What is it that is making them hard to cut?

Sincerely,

Paula Sicurello, HTL (ASCP)CM

Histotechnology Specialist

UC San Diego Health

200 Arbor Drive

San Diego, CA 92103

(P): 619-543-2872



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On Wed, Sep 5, 2018 at 10:38 AM Jennifer Phinney via Histonet <histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu<mailto:histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu>> wrote:
Hello Histonetters,
Does anyone have experience processing and cutting elephant tissues?  Any tips, tricks, or advice?  My lab has had some elephant cases recently and the tissues are unexpectedly (to us) difficult to cut.

Thanks for any help,
Jennifer Phinney QIHC
Kansas State University
Veterinary Diagnostic Lab
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