You might be able to compromise on decalcification. Embed in Epon or one of
the substitutes. Trim and thick section your block to the ROI and then place
the cut face of the block in EDTA for a few hours. Rinse in water and
section immediately. This leaves the area where the hydroxapatite was
undistorted, while still allowing good sections. Hope this helps.

Lesley Weston.



on 05/09/2002 8:43 AM, Patsy Ruegg at pruegg@colobio.com wrote:

> no way in my experience.  you might need to embedd in GMA or MMA if you don't
> want to demineralize.
> patsy
> 
> Kathleen Cormier wrote:
> 
>> Hello all,
>> 
>> I have a researcher who is submitting hydroxyapatite and cells as FFPE. Is
>> it possible to get acceptable sections from hydroxyapatite that are FFPE
>> and not decalcified? All I get is shredding. The researcher is afraid that
>> decalcification would compromise the integrity of the construct. Any
>> suggestions or references would be greatly appreciated!
>> 
>> Thanks!
>> 
>> Kathy Cormier
>> Histology Supervisor
>> Division of Comparative Medicine
>> MIT
> 
>