Re: Frozen secioning fat tissue

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From:Mequita Praet <mdpraet@bellsouth.net>
To:Tony Henwood <henwood@mail.one.net.au>
Reply-To:
Date:Thu, 26 Aug 1999 19:57:48 -0400
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Tony,
I work  in a dermlab and I cut fat, too. I have not tried the tape transfer
system. Alan is correct the fat has to be chilled down lower than most tissue.  I
use a liquid nitrogen sprayed on my tissue.  However, I realize this would not
work in a hospital setting because of the infectious cases.  But you can take a
swab an immerse it in liquid nitrogen, then place the swab onto the fat. When the
fat turns white, section it. Sometimes it also requires a faster rotation of the
fly wheel to get a section. There are many ways to accomplish fat sectioning. You
just have to keeping trying the different ways till you find one that works in
your lab.  Let me tell you, the doctors will be singing your praises when they see
you fat sections. I gave a workshop on frozen sections at the NSH S/C last year. I
am sorry you didn't get to it, you could have seen my beautiful fat sections.
Mequita Praet, HT/HTL(ASCP)
Lab Manager
Dermatology Associates
Boca Raton, FL
Tony Henwood wrote:

> Dear Alan,
>
> > I believe the problems you are having on sectioning fat are caused by one of
> > two problems with your cryostat.
> >
> > Firstly, you need to be sectioning fat at around minus 30 deg.C. Rotary
> > microtomes very often get very tight at these temperatures and stop
> > advancing, if they are adjusted for the lower temperature ranges , then they
> > do not perform so well for the majority of tissues that are sectioned in the
> > minus 20 deg.C range.
>
> Can you really cut frozen sections of fat? I'm impressed!!!!!
>
> Regards, Tony
> .
> Tony Henwood
> Senior Scientist
> Anatomical Pathology
> Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
> Sydney, AUSTRALIA
>
> http://www2.one.net.au/~henwood
> http://www.pathsearch.com/homepages/TonyHenwood/default.html






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