[Histonet] Brain and spinal cord

[John Kiernan]

10% neutral buffered formaldehyde is good, but a whole human brain needs to be immersed for at least 2 weeks, suspended by a string under the basilar artery to prevent squashing against the bottom of the container. The soft tissue has to be properly hardened before the brain can be sliced and small pieces selected for embedding and sectioning.

Fixatives other than formaldehyde can be OK for brains of small animals used in research, but for human neuropathology you need formaldehyde to get the expected results with regularly used stains and with immunohistochemistry.

See Adams & Murray 1982 Atlas of post-mortem techniques in neuropathology. ISBN 9780521105682<https://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9780521105682?cm_sp=bdp-_-ISBN13-_-PLP>. Secondhand copies cost about US $30. Every lab should have plenty of books. They cost a lot less than making mistakes.

John Kiernan
Anatomy & Cell Biology
University of Western Ontario
London, Canada
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From: Yahoo via Histonet <histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu>
Sent: 15 May 2020 15:42
To: histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu <histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu>
Subject: [Histonet] Brain and spinal cord

Hi All!
I’m looking for some suggestions please on fixation for brain tissue and spinal cord submissions from necropsies. We are currently using 10% NBF and ask our pathologists to leave the samples overnight (but that doesn’t always happen!!). Does anyone use alcohol-based fixatives? And if so, how long? Does it affect IHC or any other staining? Do you still process with other routine biopsies (14 hour program)?
Thanks!

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