If you can stain the slides now, do it. Why wait? Avoid all of the storage
problems. Even after "perfect" storage (whatever that is) what if the freezer
breaks down over the weekend? What if someone throws your material out by
mistake? Or spills something on it? Why take chances with vaulable specimens.
    Whether to store "wet" or "dry" probably depends on what you are looking
for. You could store tissue both ways but what if neither way is good for what
you are looking for?? Did I mention staining the material now?

Geoff

Frouwke Kuijpers wrote:

> Hallo everybody
>
> I have a question about storage of frozen tissue.
> We have no experience with that and we are forced to it now because the mice
> which we use for our experiments are sick and it takes at least a year
> before we can get new ones. So we have to be very economical with the tissue
> we have left. We have the fixed sections now in autoclaved PBS and So-azide
> at 4 C.
>
> People suggested we can store the left sections at - 80 C after mounting
> them on slides. I have read about it in the archives of the Histonet and
> most people advice to put silicagel in the slide boxes to prevent the
> sections become too humid. Is that for the ice crystals?
> But now my problem: other people of our University told me to put wet tissue
> in the slideboxes, to prevent the sections are drying out? (Those white
> spots you see when you left your frozen meat too long in the fridge).
>
> So, I am in a dilemma now, I have two complete opposite advices, what should
> I do??
>
> Frouwke Kuijpers
>
> F.J.Kuijpers-Kwant
> Dept. Cellular Animal Physiology
> University of Nijmegen
> Toernooiveld 1
> 6525 ED Nijmegen
> frouwke@sci.kun.nl

--
**********************************************
Geoff McAuliffe, Ph.D.
Neuroscience and Cell Biology
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854
voice: (732)-235-4583; fax: -4029
mcauliff@umdnj.edu
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