Zamboni's is a variant of Bouin's fixative developed for EM use to fix
spermatazoa and as such it contains picric acid. It is also a good fixtive
to preserve antigenicity for EM. I haven't heard of it's use simply to keep
sections from falling off slides, but maybe the procedure was written before
the advent of coated slides and Plus-treated slides. Zambonis will coagulate
protiens, so maybe that is why sections would stay on the slides a bit
better than formaldehyde-treated sections. Other than that I can't think of
a reason to use it.

Tim Morken
Centers for Disease Control 
Atlanta, USA

-----Original Message-----
From: David Van Reyk [mailto:David.VanReyk@uts.edu.au]
Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 6:14 AM
To: histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
Subject: zamboni vs straight paraformaldehyde


happy new year to all,
[I think my firts attempt at posting this inquiry failed]
we have been provided with an immunohistochemical protocol for forzen
sections that requires Zamboni's fixative. In our lab we normally use 4%
paraformaldehyde. The protocol mentions that zamboni's is used to keep the
sections from falling off the slides. Is this the only reason Zamboni's
would be used over straight paraformaldehyde or are there other advantages.

Dr David van Reyk,
Dept Health Sciences,University of Technology,Sydney, 
PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007, AUSTRALIA
Ph 61-2-9514-2221 FAX 61-2-9514-2228 
email david.vanreyk@uts.edu.au
http://www.science.uts.edu.au/health







UTS CRICOS Provider Code:  00099F

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