Amos:
Isopropyl alcohol (IPA) penetrates less quickly than ethanol, but dehydrates more gently and hardens the tissues less. When the tissue has been dehydrated with IPA, you can mix it in a proportion of 5:1 (followed by another at 2:1) with mineral oil at 50ºC and by doing so you can ELIMINATE using xylene from tissue processing, something you cannot do with ethanol.
René J.

--- On Fri, 10/3/08, Amos Brooks  wrote:

From: Amos Brooks 
Subject: [Histonet] Isopropyl vs Ethanol
To: "histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu" 
Date: Friday, October 3, 2008, 8:31 AM

Hi,
   Is there anyone who uses exclusively isopropyl alcohol to process with
rather than ethanol? I have had great results with isopropyl alcohol for
some tissues, but I wanted to know if there are any pitfalls to using it
exclusively for processing. I've noticed that isopropyl is much cheaper
than
ethanol, so it leads me to wonder why ethanol is so prevalant for
dehydration.

Thanks,
Amos Brooks
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