Hello histonetters,
I recently made the move back to a hospital lab after being in research, and we
are currently using two different parrafins for infiltration and embedding. I
would like to change the type of paraffin that we are using (I have one in
mind), but I was wondering if there were
I took and passed my HTL exam last weekend and just wanted to say thank
you to all the wonderful, helpful people who responded to my request for
advice a few months ago. I really appreciated your kindness and expertise!
If anyone is preparing for their exam now and has questions, I'm happy to
We use Richard Allen Type 6 paraffin for both infiltration and embedding (16
years) with no adverse effects. To validate you can get the pathologist to
give you samples for the same specimens you are running. IE; gallbladder 1
for patient dx and 1 for testing, uterus, appendix, any large
I posted the other day about having problems with my two processors. My
newest processor I believe is having an issue with
dehydration/infiltration. I have tried everything I know, plus some
suggestions from this list. I downloaded their manual for the processor and
the suggested program for this
Hi Merissa,
don't know if you got any private idea responses so I'll throw in my opinion.
I would always worry about some of the things you are mentioning and that are
standard thoughts regarding biotin block, retrieval, etc in IHC.
But I would think about your serum, which I steadfastly
With our lectin staining on paraffin embedded tissue we use Avidin/Biotin
blocking prior to antibody application. Some protocols we do use HIER before
the blocking. One important item is that some lectins require a specific
diluent. The dilution can be as high as 1:12,000. Lectins are well
Happy Easter everyone!!! I was wondering if anyone had a tracking system that
they would be willing to share in regards to how you all are keeping a record
of your control blocks for IHC. As of right now, we are cutting a slide and
staining it for the pathologist to approve- then keeping the
Dear Merissa,
Ray is correct about using serums with lectins. In fact you really are NOT
doing immunostaining unless you are using an antibody made to recognize that
lectin e.g. anti-lectin therefore a normal serum block is not needed.Serums
in fact contain glycoproteins that bind to
The vast majority of our positive control tissues are prepared from left-over
tissue not used for patient diagnosis. I am hesitant to use the diagnostic
tissue for control purposes in case we have to go back to perform additional
testing. Also, I try to identify cases where we can put-through
