On Wed, 13 Oct 1999, Simon Smith wrote:

> Anybody have first hand experience with demineralization of tissues fixed in
> NBF versus 70% alcohol?

   70% alcohol would not be a good fixative for animal tissues.
   I have had lots of experience of formic acid decalcification
   of animal heads that were fixed in an alcohol-formalin-acetic acid
   mixture. Results were fine. I think your tissue needs to be
   well fixed before decalcifying, but the identity of the actual 
   fixative does not matter much. Choose the fixative most
   appropriate to the intended embedment, staining, histochemistry
   etc.

 John A. Kiernan,
 Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology,
 The University of Western Ontario,
 LONDON,  Canada  N6A 5C1