Ron,

We had some trouble staining our rat brain and spinal cord sections
(30µm)  with H&E (Usually we use cresyl violet). I am assuming you
are talking about frozen tissue sections. Our biggest problem was
patchy staining, and that the thicker sections were too dark. In the
end we used the standard H&E run used for parafin sections, Harris
Haematoxylin (regressive) and eosin but with reduced times (esp for
eosin) and careful differentiation in acid alcohol.
I can't help with exact times as they differ so much between
batches/types of H&E.
The other thing we were finding was that we got much more even
results if the air dried sections were taken down through xylene and
alcohol in exactly the same way you would for parafin sections. If
you are using parafin embedded sections there should be no difference
in the staining for rat/mouse tissue to what you might usually use in
the clinical settings.

Cheers, Cath





At 9:16 AM -0400 22/7/02, Martin, Ronald wrote:
>Fellow histotechs,
>
>If anyone is willing to share their H&E staining procedure for rat/mice
>tissue I would greatly appreciate it. I am staining brain, skin, sub
>cutaneous  tumors, stomach and whole 1 day olds. I would like to know what
>type of stains (brands), times and techniques (progressive or regressive)
>some of you are using. Once again, this is for rat/mice tissue in a research
>setting, not a clinical setting.
>Thanks,
>Ron Martin, B.Sc., HT/HTL (ASCP)


--
---------------------------------------------------
Cathy Gorrie
Scientific Officer
Neural Injury Research Unit,
Department of Anatomy
School of Medical Sciences,
University of New South Wales
Sydney, N.S.W. 2052

Phone: 61-2-9385 2462
Fax   : 61-2-9313 6252
e-mail: c.gorrie@unsw.edu.au