Attn. Kerry Beebe, Kelowna General Hospital, Canada.

Dear Kerry,

The following is a reliable method and spot-on method for diastase
digestion of formalin-fixed paraffin sections, which I have published on
Histonet several times before, but perhaps you missed previously.



 Diastase Digestion Method.

Use
Sigma alpha-Amylase Type VI-B  Product No. A3176

Preparation
Add 0.2g of Amylase powder to 100ml of distilled water in a flask.
Shake to mix.

Method
1.Preheat  flask + amylase/water mixture in a water bath at 45oC for 10mins
(Your section-floating bath will do for this)
Also warm an empty Coplin jar in the same waterbath

2.Transfer amylase solution to Coplin jar, add dewaxed sections and
incubate in the same waterbath for a further 10mins

3.Rinse sections well in distilled water and proceed with staining method

NB. IT IS VERY DANGEROUS TO ALLOW SPITTING IN THE LABORATORY AND THIS
SHOULD NOT BE USED AS A SOURCE OF DIASTASE.

John Difford FIBMS
Dept. of Histopathology
Royal Free Hospital
London, England