Heather, Short answer: if you do a good trichrome on normal muscle tissue you'll be fine.
Ragged red fibers describe muscle that has abnormal concentrated areas of mitochondria - they show as large red areas within the muscle fiber. However, if you do a normal muscle and can see the mitochondria staining red, then you will also be able to see the mitochondrial concentrations on diseased fibers. Doing this stain well requires excellent frozen muscle tissue, which means snap freezing in methyl butane cooled by liquid nitrogen. If you haven't done that procedure I suggest reviewing this video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4Wk7iSJJZs Tim Morken Supervisor, Electron Microscopy/Neuromuscular Special Studies Department of Pathology UC San Francisco Medical Center tim.mor...@ucsfmedctr.org -----Original Message----- From: histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Hart, Heather Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2012 2:33 PM To: Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu Subject: [Histonet] Modified Gomori Trichrome I have request to implement this stain for frozen muscle in OCT blocks. The pathologist is looking for demonstration of ragged red fibers, however it is my understanding (very limited) that this (in this circumstance) is a diagnostic stain and the tissue on hand that I will be using for development will be normal with no RRF present. I am unable to discern what type of tissue to use as a positive control, outside of muscle diseased specimen. Any suggestions and/or working methods would be greatly appreciated. Heather Hart, MLT (ASCP) ________________________________ This message (including any attachments) may contain confidential, proprietary, privileged and/or private information. The information is intended to be for the use of the individual or entity designated above. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, please notify the sender immediately, and delete the message and any attachments. Any disclosure, reproduction, distribution or other use of this message or any attachments by an individual or entity other than the intended recipient is prohibited. _______________________________________________ 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
