Hello Jason;
I don't know if this will be helpful, but here goes.  I work with inner ear in tg lacz mice time points embryonic thru 1 year.  I decal excised inner ears (P5 on)fixed in 4% Para, decal in .12 M EDTA X 48 hours minimum.  I like to decal before XGAL staining, but I know folks who say you can decal after if desired, no difference.  Imbed in paraffin.  I cannot use frozen sections because morphology not sharp enough,  otherwise I am told staining sections is the way to go.   
Good luck!  Maureen Loomer, Master's candidate, East Carolina University
-----Original Message-----
From: "Weaver, Jason" <Jason_Weaver@URMC.Rochester.edu>
To: "'histonet@pathology.swmed.edu'" <histonet@pathology.swmed.edu>
Sent: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 13:56:25 -0500
Subject: lacz in bone

all:
we will be looking at transplanted bone grafts from tg lacz mice.
i have had conflicting stories on how to process the whole long bones.
ie. decal to frozen then stain, frozen then stain, stain then paraffin.
does anyone have any info on processing the tissue and getting an enzymatic
reaction with b-gal without using immunos.
thanks.
jmw