Freida
I totally agree with Jackie especially when talking about paraffin
sections. 
As most skin has epidermal rete pegs it is not possible to cut from the
ideal direction, i.e. not encountering the epidermis until after you
have passed through all the dermis. I used to cut dermis side first but
always at an angle. 
If you need to set your pathologists mind at rest you can refer him/her
to Steedmans book where the mechanics of cutting are detailed.

Steedman H.F. 1960. 
Section Cutting in Microscopy. 
Blackwell scientific Publications, Oxford, England.

There is also useful information to be obtained, even though it is
specifically for electron microscopy, in "Thin Sectioning and associated
techniques for electron microscopy.  Originally put out by Sorvall.
Third edition is 1974.
Barry

-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces@lists.utsouthwestern.edu
[mailto:histonet-bounces@lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of
Jackie.O'Connor@abbott.com
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2004 9:11 AM
To: FreidaC@aol.com
Cc: histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: Re: [Histonet] Embedding


I worked in a derm lab for a few years, and it seemed best to embed the 
skins on a slight angle to the mold, so that when you cut through the
soft 
tissue first, your knife wasn't hitting a straight line of (sometimes) 
hard epidermis.  Also, if you cut through the epidermis first, there is
a 
tendency to damage the knife edge, or drag hard particles through the
soft 
tissue,  creating scratch artifacts in your section. 
Jackie O'




FreidaC@aol.com
Sent by: histonet-bounces@lists.utsouthwestern.edu
05/21/2004 08:46 AM

 
        To:     histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu
        cc: 
        Subject:        [Histonet] Embedding


I have a question for all of the derm and hard tissue people out there. 
How 
do you embed the sections?  Do you cut the dense or hard tissue first or

last 
- or do you embed at an angle?  One individual is questioning the answer

given 
in the study guide and so far I have different answers from those I have

consulted.

Thanks,

Freida Carson
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