Chris describes by experiences with storing frozen sections to the tee.
Once I started storing cut FS unfixed and took care to remove them from the 
-70 without allowing water to form, I have not seen any loss of antigenicity 
on any antibody including hormone receptors stored this way for up to 6 
years.  Stored fixed FS have not performed this well.
Patsy Ruegg



Patsy Ruegg, HT(ASCP)QIHC
IHCtech, LLC
Fitzsimmons BioScience Park
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Aurora, CO 80010
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----Original Message Follows----
From: Chris van der Loos 
To: histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
Subject: RE: Storage of frozen sections
Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 09:35:38 +0100

Hi Dolf,
Perhaps the following story about cryostat section storage is helpful to 
you:
Some years ago we used to store our cryo's acetone-fixed at -20C. 
Unfortunately, it appeared that for example CD4 was lost after 2-3 months of 
storage; CD3 was lost after 4-6 months. For a while I believed that cryostat 
sections could not be stored much longer than a couple of weeks. Then, a 
rheumatology research group explained me that they store their very small 
biopsies fully cut as cryostat sections unfixed at -80C. They claimed to 
have no loss of antigens, after 1-2 years of storage.
We have successfully adopted this method for our coronary artery atherectomy 
specimens. Our oldest cyrostat sections are stored unfixed at -80C for a 
couple of years now and so far they are still working for a lot of antigens 
(CD3, CD4, CD8, CD68, T-cell activation markers, actin, etc.).

Chris van der Loos
Dept. of Cardiovascular Pathology
Academic Medical Center H0-120
Meibergdreef 9
NL-1105 AZ Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Dolf Segers wrote:
 >Date: 9 Dec 2002 03:45:12 -0600
 >From: d.segers@planet.nl
 >Subject: Storage of frozen sections
 >Dear Histonetters,
 >Just a simple question. How long can frozen unfixed sections be stored in 
a
 >-60 C freezer. Sections are mounted on superfrost plus slides. Does anyone
 >have experience with storage of sections, or does anyone have some advice 
on
 >how to optimally store our material.
 >Dolf Segers
 >Dept. Experimental Cardiology, Thoraxcenter
 >Erasmus MC, Rotterdam


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