Jesus, The formic acid (5%) will decalcify the hydroxyapatite which can be very hard and crunchy to cut but since you ground the section I guess you don't care about that. I would be concerned though that the formic acid might also cause you to lose staining of some cell components that depend on the calcium. The methyl methacrylate can be removed from the section by xylene like deparaffinizing paraffin sections. It works for methyl methacrylate but nothing removes glycol methacrylate.
Regards, Patsy Patsy Ruegg, HT(ASCP)QIHC IHCtech 12635 Montview Blvd. Ste.215 Aurora, CO 80045 720-859-4060 fax 720-859-4110 www.ihctech.net www.ihcrg.org -----Original Message----- From: histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Jesus Hernandez Sent: Friday, November 04, 2011 3:41 PM To: histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu Subject: [Histonet] Formic Acid Recipe Dear all, I was having trouble staining Human embryonic palatal mesenchymal cells with multi-stain solution. My PI told me to use formic acid on the samples so that it could increase the permeability of the methyl methacrylate. I am not sure if this is enough information, but the cells were loaded on hydroxyapatite scaffolds. I have also tried aniline blue and villaneuva stain. Any information on how I can make a solution of formic acid is appreciated along with maybe other stains I could try using. Each sample was grinded to about 50 microns. Thank you. Best Regards, Jesus W. Hernandez Graduate Student Department of Biomedical Engineering University of Texas at San Antonio jesus.w....@gmail.com _______________________________________________ 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