ageing rings in sharks
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From: | "Marshall, Sharon," <marshall@anat.uct.ac.za> |
To: | histonet@pathology.swmed.edu |
Reply-To: | |
Content-Type: | text/plain; charset=US-ASCII |
Hi histonetters,
I have a student in my lab. who wants to view ageing rings in cat
shark vertebrae. This has been done before (previous papers) using
resin sections and tetracycline fluorescence. These sections are a
couple of mm thick and viewed under ultra violet light. She seems to
think it might be possible to process to wax, cut 7 micron thick
sections and still see these rings. We tried some samples she had
which are 10 years old and have been in 70% alcohol all that time.(no
tetracycline present in sharks in these samples)
We decalcified in 5% formic acid, processed to wax and then stained 7
micron sections with H&E, Tol. Blue. No rings. I think these rings
are only possible to view using thicker sections i.e.mm thick or the
specimens are to old. I know that to see tetracycline flourescence
one needs to alcohol fix and resin embed hence the processing in the
previous papers.
Finally, we are going to try fresh samples but I am wondering if we
are not wasting our time. I need to convince her that resin and
thicker sections cut with a diamond saw is the
way to go even if no tetracycline is present in the samples.
Any opinions,help would be great.
Thanks
Sharon Marshall
Anatomy & Cell Biology
University of Cape Town
South Africa
E-mail: marshall@anat.uct.ac.za
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