According to the MSDS sheet at the web address provided by Cindy Dubois, this
solution contains water, sodium acetate, zinc chloride, phenol and citric acid
- concentrations not disclosed; pH not stated. Another MSDS for ultrum at
http://siri.org/msds/f2/bzr/bzrjb.html lists the ingredients as 1,5-pentanedial
(that's glutaraldehyde) 3%, zinc sulphate.7H2O 1%, carboxy hydroxide (=??!,
but 0.04%) and buffers 2.0%.
Solutions containing glutaraldehyde and phenol are used as disinfectants; all
kinds of additives, not the ones listed for ultrum, are included to increase
shelf life and reduce the corrosive effect on metals (see eg Schattner 1978 US
Patent 410301). Phenol accelerates protein cross-linking by formaldehyde, and
phenol-formaldehyde fixatives were sometimes used in the late 1980s to early
1990s (see Hopwood et al 1989 Histochem. J. 21:228-234). This mixture never
became popular. A Scopus search shows only 6 articles citing the original
publication.
Glutaraldehyde fixation can be bad news for light microscopy because it leaves
all parts of the tissue bristling with free aldehyde groups. These can bind
some dyes, are Schiff-positive and can bind proteins such as antibodies.
Glutaraldehyde also induces fluorescence (not, strictly speaking
autofluorescence, but just as unwanted). There are various clever ways of
overcoming these undesirable actions of glutaraldehyde (eg Kasten Lala 1975
Stain Technol. 50: 197-201; Tagliaferro et al 1997 J. Neurosci. Methods
77(2):191-197).
There is no shortage of stable fixative mixtures with known composition and
ingredients whose actions on tissues have been quite thoroughly studied, and
which don't corrode metals.
John Kiernan
Anatomy, UWO
London, Canada
= = =
- Original Message -
From: Cindy DuBois integrated.hi...@gmail.com
Date: Wednesday, March 3, 2010 12:17
Subject: [Histonet] Ultram Fixative
To: histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Ultram Fixative is actually Ultrum Fixative and is available thru
American Mastertech:
http://www.americanmastertech.com/store/main.aspx?p=ItemDetailStylesitem=FXULTGAL
Cindy Dubois
Message: 20
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2010 20:08:23 -0500
From: Robert Richmond rsrichm...@gmail.com
Subject: [Histonet] Re: Ultram fixative
To: histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Message-ID:
abea52a61003021708q3a5e96a5l7d23d18732547...@mail.gmail.comContent-Type:
text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Richard Cartun asks We have a clinic that is fixing tissue in
Ultram. I have never heard of it. Can someone educate me about
Ultram?
I can't Google any evidence for an Ultram fixative. Ultram is a trade
name for tramadol, an opioid analgesic.
Either somebody is confused, or you've got somebody involved in
dubious drug transactions. Can anybody in the clinic shed any
light on
the matter?
Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN
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