Karen,
            I would suggest that you deep six the carbowax idea, as when it works it
is fine but often requires a lot of messing around to get the correct condtions for
your tissue. Additionally the sections are difficult to handle.
Would you define which antigens you are trying to demonstrate please  as this makes a
difference in the types of fixation etc. that can be recommended.
thanks
Barry

"Karen D. Larison" wrote:

> Histonetters.
>
> One of the PI's is thinking about doing some carbowax embedding for IHC.  What are
> the advantages and disadvantages of this method over frozen and paraffin sections?
> Should I encourage or discourage him from pursuing this.  We've tried frozen
> sections, and one thing that seems to "unmask"  the antigen is to put the dry
> slides in a microwave for a few seconds with a large beaker of water to diffuse
> the energy.  Seems to me that he needs to try some different fixations or maybe
> paraffin embedding.  Unfortunately, he's writing a grant, so is under the gun to
> get some results.  Any and all opinions on this problem are welcome.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Karen Larison  -- University of Oregon