40 microns on paraffin? I don't think so. He should use a sledge
microtome to section fixed, sucrose-protected, frozen brains. He
will obtain beautiful atlas-quality serial sections. A good
cryostat can also be used to  section unfixed or fixed-frozen
brains at 40um.
The thickest paraffin I have attempted is 20um-and yes, the
sections will curl into a thick roll.

Happy Sectioning!

Lorriane Gibbs

On Thu, 23 Mar 2000, Maureen Decorah wrote:

> Received this question but I don't have any experience cutting this thick.
> Does anyone have suggestions for him?
> 
> 
> 
>  I am trying to cut 40 micron sections of brain tissue (mouse)
> >embedded in paraffin.  The sections don't come off the knife well and if I
> >do get them they crack later.  I seem to be able to get 5 micron sections
> >from the same block ok.  Is it possible to get 40 micron sections and if so
> >are there any "tricks" to doing it?  Thanks again for your help.
> >
> 
> 
> 
> 	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 	Maureen Decorah, Research Animal Resources Center
> 	385A Enzyme Institute, 1710 University Avenue
> 	University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI 53705-4098
> 	(608) 262-0933  Fax(608) 265-2698  E-mail: decorah@rarc.wisc.edu
> 	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> 
> 
>