If you dilute OCT with PBS and inflate lungs, beware - this tends to leak
out of lung, and you have to work very fast to snap freeze.  Sometime the
dilution is too great e.g. 1 part OCT and 2 parts water, you introduce more
water than you want, which makes cutting difficult.  The lungs will inflate
as well with full strength OCT as long as you use the 18 gauge needle to
inject it.   

Also, do you use the ORIGINAL OCT from Sakura Finetek aka Miles OCT?  Some
cryomedias (we learned this the hard way) don't seem to work as well with
inflated mouse lungs and intestine - and we found out one was tested with
human tissue, and not with mouse nor special application we needed -
inflated lung and small intestine.  Sectioning can be difficult and section
quality poor.  This does not mean any given cryomedia is defective, but
more suited to clinical or other applications.  Try them out!  There are a
bunch out on the market.  




Gayle Callis
MT,HT,HTL(ASCP)
Research Histopathology Supervisor
Veterinary Molecular Biology 
Montana State University - Bozeman
PO Box 173610
Bozeman MT 59717-3610
406 994-6367 (lab with voice mail)
406 994-4303 (FAX)



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