Pearl,
	Nice article in J of Clin Path97;50 422-428 suggests that slide
could be held for up to six months. I suspect each epitope is diferent and
perhaps you may want to carry out your own study of the procedures you use.
Studies I do I am careful to cut controls on the same day as specimens.
	 I look forward to comments from others. 

Cynthia Favara
Rocky Mountain Laboratories
903 S 4th Street
Hamilton, MT 59840
ph: 406-363-9317
FAX: 406-363-9286
e-mail: cfavara@nih.gov


> ----------
> From: 	Gervaip@aol.com[SMTP:Gervaip@aol.com]
> Sent: 	Thursday, July 29, 1999 7:00 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
>