Re: methylmetacrylate re-embedding

From:Karen Pawlowski

Hi Myriam,

This topic has come up before and, in my (and others)experience, you
can't re-embed methylmethacrylate very well (in my case JB-4). You can
fill in the bubbles if they are on a surface by placing the whole block
into a new mold with fresh embedding media, but the media won't
penetrate into the block.

Often, bubbles will form if the block has over heated during 
polymerization. If this is your case, you will also see that the tissue
looks a bit "cooked".  There isn't anything you can do for it except 
make sure that the molds are in some sort of a heat sink the next time
you embed.  We use ice water around the molds and place the molds into
the refrigerator as soon as the molds are ready. You can also place
empty molds, weighted down with something into water so that it comes 
about half way up the side of the mold. Then place the whole set-up 
into the frezzer to freeze the molds in place.  This is a little easier
for manipulation of the tissue media and mold and embedding time.

Good luck,

Karen Pawlowski, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
UT Dallas

Myri37@aol.com wrote:
> 
> hello histonetters,
> I have methylmetacrylate embedded samples which need to be re-embedded due to uneven polymerization leading to air bubbles captured in the blocks.
> can somebody give me a procedure to perform this re-embedding ?
> thanks in advance
> best regards
> Myriam baali
> marseille
> France




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