On Fri, 10 Mar 2000, ANN MARUSKA wrote:

> Dear Histonetters,
> For those of you who do IHC stains and get slides that have been previously stained e.g. H&E, how do you get the coverslip film off the slides?  I know there is a quick method by placing the slides in acetone, but does this affect the antigenicity of those slides? 
> Right now I soak them in Xylene, but it takes days to get the film unglued.  Glass coverslips come off rather quickly in xylene, it's just the film coverslip that takes forever.
> Thanks for whatever info you can share.
> Ann Maruska
> Fairview-University Med Ctr
> Mpls.  MN  55454
> amarusk1@fairview.org 
> 
> 
> 
Hello Ann,
I sometimes run IHC on H&E slides and have had trouble with "film"
coverslip.  But soaking them in the "original" reagent that came before
coverslipping is the key.  This is lab we use xylene just before
coverslipping and in the lab I used to work at, used  Histoclear just
before coverslipping.  Sometimes I don't know which reagent was used by
another lab and you have to fiddle with several reagents.  You also must
go back to try to move the coverslip a bit quite often.  Hope this helps

Dana Settembre
Immunohistochemistry Lab
Pathology Department
University Hospital
Newark,  New Jersey
USA