>> Is there a product that replaces xylene AND alcohols in the staining
>> procedure?  Can you use it before and after the actual staining is done?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Trisha

Dear Trisha,

We use 99% isopropyl alcohol (IPA) instead ethanol AND xylene AFTER
staining. It is especially useful after staining of lymph nodes with
Maximov-Giemsa method. My modification of this method is to use eosin and
erytrosin mixture for differentiation overstained sections. We place a drop
of EE mixture over section moisten with a few drops of IPA. My laboratory
use this modification more then 5 years and I never seen the same excellent
result in comparison with atlases of lymph nodes biopsy. And more, we use
IPA with addition of small amount of detergent for dehydration of samples. 4
changes of 99% IPA+detergent - it is all of what you need between water and
paraffin. We never have had problems with any tissues (large samples of skin
or other the same difficult for embedding). Our HTs adore IPA.

Dr Yuri Krivolapov MD
Laboratory of Molecular Pathology and Cytogenetics
Department of Haematology and Clinical Immunology
Military Medical Academy
St.-Petersburg, Russia
krivolapov@bfpg.ru