Isopentane is volatile and flammable (to about the
same extent as diethyl ether).  A safer way for the
surgeons to freeze small (2mm) specimens would for you
to provide some cryostat chucks packed in dry ice. Small
bits of tissue freeze pretty quickly (a few seconds)
on contact with metal at -80C. The chucks with mounted
specimens can then be put in airtight plastic bags
or specimen tubes and kept in a -20C freezer. I've no
expperience with synovial tissue. We used to use the
above method for muscle. There were usually some ice
crystal holes, but they were very small and didn't
interfere with fibre typing (ATPase) or measuring the
cross sectional areas of the muscle fibres.
-- 
-------------------------------
John A. Kiernan
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology
The University of Western Ontario
London,   Canada   N6A 5C1
   kiernan[AT]uwo.ca
   http://publish.uwo.ca/~jkiernan/
   http://instruct.uwo.ca/anatomy/530/index.htm
_______________________________
Elizabeth Chlipala wrote:
> 
> Hello Histonetters
> 
> I have a unique question.  We are currently starting to set up procedure
> for collecting samples from a clinical trial.  The clinical trial
> involves taking multiple synovial biopsies at a surgery center.  Since
> portions of the samples need to be processed for frozen sections we
> wanted to be able to freeze the specimens at the surgery center via
> isopentane cooled liquid nitrogen.  We really do not want to have to
> transport the multiple specimens back to the main lab prior to freezing
> due to the time involved it would probably be 1-2 hours post biopsy
> before we could freeze the samples.  The surgery center is questioning
> the flammability of the isopentane.  Has anyone encountered anything
> like this?  Any suggestions would be helpful.  Thanks in advance.
> 
> Liz
> 
> Elizabeth A. Chlipala, BS, HTL(ASCP)QIHC
> Manager
> Premier Laboratory, LLC
> P.O. Box 18592
> Boulder, Colorado 80308
> Office: (303) 735-5001
> Fax: (303) 735-3540
> liz@premierlab.com
> www.premierlab.com
> 
> Ship to Address:
> Premier Laboratory
> University of Colorado
> MCDB, Room A3B40
> Boulder, Colorado 80309

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