Hi Claude:

    Your problem may be that the intestines are attached to the 
posterior abdominal wall with a mesentary. Getting the intestine 
straight, without the normal curves and kinks, means you will have to 
cut the mesentary. Flushing with fixative is a good idea but keep the 
'inflation' mild to avoid distortion. Another poster suggested that the 
constricted areas might be due to the tumors themselves, sounds like a 
possibility to me too. Unfixed intestine is pretty 'relaxed' already and 
if you want good fixation, fix the tissue immediately after death. Don't 
worry about making it more flaccid.

Geoff

Claude M Nagamine wrote:

>I'm looking for tumors in the small and large intestines of mice.  I've been
>inflating the intestines with formalin immediately after removal to prevent
>autolysis.  It also stretches the intestines making them easier to cut open
>and, if things work well, flushes the lumen.  However, there are often "tight"
>constricted areas that do not inflate or flush.  I was thinking that
>things would be simple if the intestines were flaccid in the first place.
>
>Does anyone have a technique to relax the intestines prior to flushing with
>formalin?  
>
>Claude Nagamine
>MIT, Div. Comp. Medicine
>Cambridge, MA
>
>
>
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>  
>

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Geoff McAuliffe, Ph.D.
Neuroscience and Cell Biology
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
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voice: (732)-235-4583; fax: -4029 
mcauliff@umdnj.edu
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