We do section our control slides in advance and to save money (we also have
Ventana stainers) pick up some on "control/patient" slides and others on
plain slides.  We do not have the luxury of time or an endless supply of
control material to cut controls at the time of patient sectioning. There
are a number of antibodies for which control slides are kept at -20; ER, PR,
HER2neu, etc.with no evident loss of reactivity.  This storage procedure has
come about through trial and error.  

We'd be interested in hearing what other labs are doing as well.

Linda Sebree, HT
University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics
Department of Laboratory Medicine
IHC/ISH Laboratory
A4/204-2472
600 Highland Ave.
Madison, WI  53792-2472

Phone:  (608)265-6596
FAX:  (608)263-1568

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Gervaip@aol.com [SMTP:Gervaip@aol.com]
> Sent:	Thursday, July 29, 1999 8:01 PM
> To:	histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
> Subject:	IHC controls- storage?
> 
> Presently, IHC controls, are sectioned on a daily basis for IHC requests.
> Is 
> there any reason why they cannot be sectioned in batches and stored in
> slide 
> boxes for future use?  Our lab did that at one time and it made life so
> much 
> easier and I did not think that it affected the quality of the stain.  One
> 
> exception:  the ER, PR and Factor 13 controls, were sectioned in small 
> quantities and stored in a slide box in the refrigerator.  It would be 
> interesting to find out what other folks are doing.
> 
> One main reason we presently do it this way is to keep the cost down...
> we 
> can put several negative controls on one slide, when we have a request for
> 
> several antibodies on the same tissue sample.  And with the Ventana, the 
> detection kit already costs $7.50 per slide or $15 for a set of one
> positve 
> and one negative.  
> 
> Pearl Gervais