Well I am glad it was Gayle that gave the lecture and not me. But I have to
agree with her especially on the avian tissue, which will leave you whining
if you run it like a human sample. While the majority of the people I know
run animal samples the same as human samples using the same processing
schedules etc. I believe they then tweak things after the processing. i.e.
water, ice and variations, even reprocessing. I think most people know that
the reason pigs are used in skin research is because they come the closest
to human skin in most aspects...that in itself says other animal skin is
different. In research we usually have less of a time constraint than
people in clinical situations. We use that opportunity to fix the samples
completely and adjust the processing schedule to fit the tissue/animal. I
don't remember the animal/tissue that started this thread but I am sure
Gayle or myself has a particular processing schedule we use on that
species/tissue. If that person wants to contact me and remind me of the
specifics I will be happy to share. Whole mouse embryos have different
fixation/processing schedules in my lab depending on age and procedure they
have already been through (eg LacZ labelling). Once the skin forms its
protective barrier it becomes all but impossible to get internal organs
fixed and processed if they don't have their own procedure. And the end
'need' is always taken into consideration. Tissues cannot be decalcified,
even bone if the researcher is studying the calcium uptake. Pre-staining
mouse ovaries with eosin, so we can find it in a cassette, is out if they
are going to do fluorescent antibody studies (eosin auto-fluoresces) Whole
embryos cannot be dropped into liquid nitrogen or some other fast freeze
technique, the outside freezes and by the time the inside freezes you get
the liver expanding and popping out of the body. Things are definitely
different at least in the field I am familiar with, academic research
histology. Gayle has a great workshop at NSH. I don't remember if she is
doing it this year or not. But even it just brushes the service of the
field. The techniques are getting out there but we have to be willing to
break from the norm if we have people depending on us to help them with
their scientific break throughs. One of my favorite saying....Nothing in
research is "routine". Especially with all the transgenic and knockout
models that are being developed.  Best of luck to anyone who has chosen or
been given the responsibility of processing animal tissue.