Ian,
        we have used chloroform quite a lot in the past for IHC, lectin
binding etc.
When using chloroform we always used this at 4C. All processing up to wax was
at 4C as we believe this retained the antigenicity of MANY antigens to a
better degree than at RT.
Also choroform and xylene do remove some different lipids and glycolipids as
can be seen by comparing frozen sections with tissues processed with each of
these intermediary agents.
Barry

Ian Montgomery wrote:

>         Clearing agents for tissue processing in immunohistochemistry.
>         Xylene is ok but what about the others, chloroform, benzene,
> toluene, amyl acetate etc. I'm a wee bit suspicious about loss of
> antigenicity with chloroform but nothing I'd like to stake the contents of
> my wifes wallet on.
>         Haven't found a lot in the literature regarding use, any thoughts.
> Ian.
>
> Dr. Ian Montgomery,
> West Medical Building,
> University of Glasgow,
> Glasgow,
> G12 8QQ,
> Scotland.
> Tel: 0141 339 8855 Extn. 6602.
> Fax: 0141 330 4100.
> e-mail: ian.montgomery@bio.gla.ac.uk