We cut control slides ahead for all our antibodies.  The slides boxed up and either stored in the freezer or at room temperature, depending on the antibody they'll be used for and/or the ordering frequency.  We keep most of the controls for routine CD markers, cytokeratins, melanoma, neuroendocrine and viral markers at room temperature.  Examples of ones we keep frozen include the control slides for estrogen and progesterone markers, Ki67 and calretinin. We also have the frozen control tissue sections stored for C4d cut ahead.  I think that cutting controls at the same time as cutting the patient tissue not only affects turn-around time but also affects the life of the control block-unless it's always reoriented-which takes more time.

Sally Ann Drew-MT(ASCP)
Univ. of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics
IHC/ISH Laboratory 
600 Highland Ave. VAH-DM223
Madison, WI 53792-2472
608-265-6596
sa.drew@hosp.wisc.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: clarke.ian [mailto:clarke.ian@virgin.net]
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 11:49 AM
To: histonet
Subject: Re-Immuno control sections


Hi all,
At present we cut our control sections for immuno at the same time as the
test which can be very time consuming when you have a big run of immuno's.We
would like to have a bank of control slides so all we would need is to cut
the tests as we already do this in special stains.What do other people do
and is there some reason why this might not be a good idea?I have thought
about the loss of antigenicity as a time factor but from papers I have read
they talk about the section being stored for months.However the time factor
does not seem to be a problem for tissue blocks.
 Another item I am looking for is the e-mail address of Sherwood Medical Co
of Saint Louis if they have one.
Thanks in advance
Ian Clarke
Histopathology/Cytopathology Department
Craigavon Area Hospital
Northern Ireland