Hello,
I am sharing this information with all of you because the situation took me
by surprise.  I thought you might like to check with your engineering
department, before purchasing a vegetable steamer.  Some places are more
strict than others sooooo- take what you want and leave the rest:-)

I bought a vegetable steamer for the Histology laboratory only to find out
that I could not use it for medical purposes.  Our engineering department
has very strict rules concerning safety, and fire issues.  I personally, was
a bit taken back that I could not use the steamer.  So, I purchased a
"IsoTemp" water bath from Fisher Scientific.  It costs more but it meets
safety recommendations for the laboratory that I work in. 

Hope that this is helpful. 
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Morken, Tim [SMTP:tim9@cdc.gov]
> Sent:	Wednesday, October 24, 2001 4:45 AM
> To:	'=?UNKNOWN?Q?V=E9ronique?= Wunderle'; histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
> Subject:	RE: antigen retrieval
> 
> Veronique,
> 
> We use a steamer (20 minutes) to do our antigen retrieval, although we use
> the microwave to heat the AR solutions. 
> 
> Tim Morken
> CDC, Atlanta 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: =?UNKNOWN?Q?V=E9ronique?= Wunderle [mailto:vwunderle@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 3:37 AM
> To: histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
> Subject: antigen retrieval
> 
> 
> hi everybody !
> Being pretty new in the big world of
> immunohistochemistry I am asking myself lots of
> questions (some people tells me it's a good thing..). 
> I know that I should get a good book on the subject
> (any advice ?) but I find that "real-life" experience
> is often much more informative.
> So the question of the day is about antigen retrieval.
> I have been looking around for different protocols and
> most of them use a microwave oven. I can't buy right
> now a microwave especially for IHC and I am a bit
> concerned about setting up parameters on an oven used
> extensively for other purposes. I am a bit anxious
> that the life span of this oven is going to be pretty
> short...
> So, I tried the heating plate protocol (10mn in
> boiling citrate buffer) on brain sections. So far, it
> seems to be working pretty well. But I may be lucky.
> I am therefore wondering if people out there tried
> this and what you think about it. What make you prefer
> the microwave method and here is the ultimate question
> : is a microwave oven a "must have" for doing
> incredible IHC ?
> all your advices are welcome...
> veronique.
> 
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