Marg,
Is it drying artifact or edge artifact from fixation?

Donna Willis
Histology Lab Manager
Harris Methodist Fort Worth, Texas

-----Original Message-----
From: Hagerty, Marjorie A. [mailto:mhagerty@emc.org]
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2001 3:39 PM
To: 'Histonet'
Subject: drying artifact


I have a question that I hope someone can answer and explain. When we do
immunoperoxidase for tumor markers, we see a degeneration at the edges of
the tissue which tend to stain darker than the rest of the tissue. This is
very apparent when viewing the slides on an image analyzer. I have been told
by people doing this testing for many, many years that it is due to drying
and is common. It is called a drying artifact. I do not see this on a
regular H&E for the  most part, so I am wondering at what point the tissue
is "dried" to produce this artifact. If I cut the tissue in half in the
block, it still shows this artifact at the inner edge, so I don't think it
could happen before processing. Any info?

Thanks in advance.
Marg
Supervisor, Anatomic Pathology
Eisenhower Medical Center
39-000 Bob Hope Drive
Rancho Mirage, CA 92270