I was trained by an experienced HTL (with 30+ years of experience), who had
worked for Lee Luna at the AFIP in the 60s.  He had switched from xylene to
Clearite 3 of Richard Allans years before I joined Shriners' for clearing
and deparaffinization.  Xylene is almost completely abolished here.  We have
inherited that system and keep using that with great success.  We don't have
problem with IHC using Abs. that we want to detect here for our little group
of research.  The only thing is we have to increase the time in Clearite 3 a
bit more, especially in deparaffinization step. Hope this will help.

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	mark.lewis@shandon.com [SMTP:mark.lewis@shandon.com]
> Sent:	Wednesday, October 18, 2000 11:26 AM
> To:	Histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
> Subject:	Immuno Staining and Xylene Substitute
> 
> Hi everyone !
> 
> Has anyone heard or read anything with regard to poor antigenicity when
> tissues are cleared using Xylene substitutes during processing or
> staining?  Someone told me that they were told not to use xylene
> substitutes of any kind for tissue processing or for the deparaffinization
> and clearing steps in the staining process because it would effect immuno
> staining negatively. They did not have details as to how, what or why.
> Please enlighten me if you know anything with regard to this.
> 
> Thank You,
> Mark Lewis