Try a 50/50 mix of formalin and 95% alcohol. Have your prep techs add about 5 mL of this mixture and a drop of albumin (we use the bovine albumin from the blood bank but any albumin will do) to the cell block contents. Mix well and centrifuge. The button should be well formed. Take care not to add too much albumin or the tissue will be brittle and difficult to cut.
Steve -----Original Message----- From: histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Hutton, Allison Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 2:00 PM To: histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu Subject: [Histonet] cell block fixation We recently switched vendors for our formalin and while we have not experienced any difference with our surgical specimens, our cell blocks from body fluids have been giving us a great deal of trouble. The button that we get never seems to harden, leaving it sort of gelatinous, even if left to sit in formalin for days. We are able to get sections off of these cell blocks, however, the slides are blank by the end of the staining process. This is only a recent development that seems to coincide with the time we switched formalin vendors and it only happens with body fluid specimens (FNA specimens don't seem to give us as much trouble). The composition of the formalin is almost identical between vendors. Can anyone help me explain why this might be happening? Thank you in advance, Allison _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet