Monique,

I embed tiny embryos in the histogel.  I turn off the vacuum for the 
alcohol/clearants, and process for 30 minutes in the alcohols, 40 
minutes in the clearants and paraffins.  This seems to work just 
fine, so haven't played much with the parameters.

I wash my embryos before embedding them in the Histogel, and have 
found that washing in 70% ethanol works better than in aqueous 
solution.  Again, this wasn't a controlled experiment, but came out 
of a one-time observation.

The embryos tend to float in the histogel, so I have to tease them 
into their precise orientation while the gel solidifies.  I use a 
cold pack to speed the solidification process.

Also if you want ribbons, trim the block so that there is a bit of 
"free" paraffin on the top and bottom.  The histogel doesn't ribbon 
that well if its on the edge of the block.

I hope this helps.

Karen in Oregon






>Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 14:09:03 -0700
>From: Monique Tourand <mtourand@maildrop.srv.ualberta.ca>
>Subject: Histogel
>To: histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
>
>Hello to everyone,
>
>I just recieved a sample of the Histogel to try as we were trying to 
>use the agrose and didn't like it very much.  I was wondering for 
>those who have used the Histogel how long you process it for and if 
>you use a vacuum or not.  I am mainly putting islets into the gel to 
>process, the main problem is when I am cutting the gel seems to 
>break up.  Thanks for the help.
>
>
>Monique Tourand
>University of Alberta
>SMRI