NY in winter has low humidity, I still have no problems with my Dako stainer. Make sure the lid is closed. I had a tech who consistently left the lid open, there was some drying on the first row of slides. Closed the lid the problem stopped. Are you using Dako buffer? The surfactant in the buffer should prevent drying. You might want to run it by the Dako tech service. Cindy
Cindy Pyse, CLT, HT (ASCP) Laboratory Manager X-Cell Laboratories e-mail cp...@x-celllab.com -----Original Message----- From: histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Morken, Timothy Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 2:27 PM To: 'Rene J Buesa'; histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu; Jason McGough Subject: RE: [Histonet] Humidity levels and IHC staining Renee, it can depend on where you are: Florida? 70, 80% humidity, no drying out. South Dakota, in winter? 10 percent humidity and you get drying problems. Tim Morken Supervisor, Histology, IPOX UCSF Medical Center San Francisco, CA, USA -----Original Message----- From: histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Rene J Buesa Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 11:20 AM To: histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu; Jason McGough Subject: Re: [Histonet] Humidity levels and IHC staining A good auto stainer (like DAKO) with adequate amounts of dispensed reagents during the correct periods of time should not experiment any drying out on the slides. Adequate humidity is required to be controlled during manual IHC, especially if done over a heated support. If because of any reason (including not leveled slides) you experiment drying out, the best way would be to have an open flat dish containing water but, again, that was never a problem for me using the DAKO auto stainer. Which auto stainer are you using? René J. --- On Fri, 2/17/12, Jason McGough <jmcgo...@clinlab.com> wrote: From: Jason McGough <jmcgo...@clinlab.com> Subject: [Histonet] Humidity levels and IHC staining To: histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu Date: Friday, February 17, 2012, 2:09 PM We are wondering what other labs are doing to control the humidity while IHC stains are being performed. We currently place wet towels and a small weigh boat with water in our Autostainer to help prevent our slides from drying out but that seems to not be enough, they still tend to dry out and produce background staining. What should the humidity level be at? Any help would be appreciated. Jason McGough HT(ASCP) Account Representative - Anatomic Pathology Clinical Laboratory of the Black Hills 2805 5th Street Suite 210 Rapid City, SD 57701 605-343-2267 Ext 127 605-718-3779 (Fax) jmcgo...@clinlab.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 _______________________________________________ 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