Re: Fw: Brainstem question

From:"J. A. Kiernan" <jkiernan@uwo.ca>

On Wed, 20 Jun 2001, Anila Syed wrote:

> > section. On a slide stained with cresyl violet, are there any visible
> > differences between the right and left sides of the brainstem? i.e. in my
> > slides where I only have half a section, can I tell if I am looking at the
> > right or left side of the brain?

The question makes good sense, and I'm pretty sure
the answer is No, you can't tell left from right
by looking, unless there's some known abnormality
on one side. It's usual to make a little mark,
such as a nick, on one side of such a specimen
before sectioning. Otherwise L and R are mirror
images With free-floating frozen sections 
(which can be collected either way up) there's 
not even regularity in orientation on the slide,
such as you get with sections of embedded tissue.
----------------------------------------
John A. Kiernan
Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology
The University of Western Ontario
London,  Canada   N6A 5C1
   kiernan@uwo.ca
   http://publish.uwo.ca/~jkiernan
     (This web site includes some labelled
      pictures of human brain stem sections.)




<< Previous Message | Next Message >>