Dear Michelle, There are many possible reasons for sections lifting off a slide. There have been some excellent suggestions. Here is another one that I haven't seen listed.
Once the section is on the slide in the desired position the slide is left to drain vertically on a rack. The water on the slide and particularly the water between the section and the slide will flow towards the base of the slide. Slides are left to drain for 1-2 minutes and then blotted between multiple layers of slightly moistened Whatmans No. 1 filter paper. The slide is placed on the filter paper, covered and blotted using a firm even downwards stroke with the side of the hand. All the water should now be removed from between the section and the glass slide. The slides are left on a hot plate for 2-5 minutes, which is set at 60 deg C.
In our lab this method combined with gel coated slides provides excellent results for sections of  brain. David.

David Taylor
Laboratory Manager
Drs King & Mower
Adelaide, Australia





-----Original Message-----
From: Michelle Mcanulty-Smith - NeuronZ Ltd.
[mailto:Michelle.Mcanulty-Smith@neuronz.com]
Sent: Monday, 9 September 2002 12:39
To: 'histonet@pathology.swmed.edu'
Subject: sections lifting...


Hi Folks,

I have been asked to post a question to  histo land and hope that someone
may be able to help...

We have whole adult rat brain (60 day rats approx 300gm weight of the brain)
the brains are perfused with Saline and fixed in 4% Formalin. The brain is
left to fix in for 48 hours minimum and then processed (cycle 16 hours using
chloroform)

The brains look and feel great after processing and cut beautifully... all
is perfect until.... the sections float off when staining! It has been
suggested to me that this is a processing problem.

We have tried various and almost all slide adhesives from pre-coated to
gelatine coated. We have even tried different kind of gelatine as I am told
pig is the best.

I have suggested drying for longer in our 58 degree oven even overnight, but
to no avail which is why 'they' now think that it is a processing problem.

The morphology of the bits that do stay on the slide is great,  we are
staining with Thionin and Acid Fuchsin and other people are not experiencing
the problem.

All thoughts and suggestions most welcome.
Michelle

Michelle McAnulty-Smith
Histology Co-ordinator

NeuronZ Ltd
Auckland
New Zealand
Tel: 09 367 7167 ext. 7060
Fax: 09 367 7186

E-mail:  michelle.mcanulty-smith@neuronz.com


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