HistoGel is a great innovation to capture minute samples and maintain them
through processing. We have been using it for our cytology fine needle
specimens for more than a year. The pathologist's were so impressed, we are
now using it to capture and process some of our smaller more friable
neuropath specimens.

HistoGel comes with it's own unique heating and cooling unit, which
liquifies the gel to accept the specimen. After accepting the specimen, the
gel is cooled back down (encapsulating the sample into a gel button). The
button is then placed into a cassette and processed as usual.

The button can be embedded into paraffin and sectioned with ease. The gel
button sections do not stain around the specimen like agarose.

Check it out online at:

http://www.labstore.com/histogel.html


It is distributed by Richard Allan Scientific and Lab Storage Systems.



Eric C. Kellar
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center



-----Original Message-----
From: larisonk@uoneuro.uoregon.edu
To: cbennett@lrri.org; histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
Sent: 12/9/99 12:37 PM
Subject: Re: Histo Gell

I would like to know about this and similar products as well.  Karen in
Oregon




Date:          Thu, 9 Dec 1999 13:56:47 -0700
From:          "Bennett, Catherine (Katie)" <cbennett@lrri.org>
Subject:       Histo Gell
To:            "'Histonet Server'" <histonet@pathology.swmed.edu>

I remember seeing at the Michigan Histology Meeting a product called
Histo
Gell.  Could someone please help me jog my memory as to who makes it
(and
their phone number).  I remember this stuff is like agarose in that it
is
heated up to melt it, then can be used to pre-embed tissues before
processing so that the tissues will remain in the correct orientation.

Has anyone used this stuff before?  Do your tissues come out looking ok,
or
is there some distortion or shrinkage?  Anyone have any good home-made
recipes for similar stuff?

Thanks in advance!

****************************
Catherine "Katie" Bresee Bennett
Sr. Technical Associate
Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute
Albuquerque, New Mexico