This is another way to soften the tissue if it is hard or brittle.  Our tissue is from
rodents but one time a cassette got left in the processor and went through the cleaning
and alcohol wash and the tissue came out shrunken and looked like a little piece of stone.
We soaked it in 50% glycerol and 50% solution of 10% neutral buffered formalin for about
24 hours, and then re-ran it through the normal tissue processing and it came out like the
original would have.  Glycerol can be mixed in with your fixative and will soften the
tissue.  Our pathologists have  not mentioned any adverse reactions when we  have done
this.
Hope this helps.

Karen Dulany  HTL (ASCP)
Eppley Institute for Cancer Research




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