It would be in your best interest to access some of these controls from
tissues you are working on your own rather than just purchase them. There
are lists of special staining controls avialable and also
immunohistochemistry controls. I know that Peggy Wenk has a list, the J of
Histotechnology published a list some time ago, Sheehan and Hrapchak Theory
and Practice of Histotechnology textbook has a list of controls for a given
specific special stain, and HistoLogic from Sakura Finetek has published a
list of controls in the past. 

Many normal tissues contain the specific tissue componenent you are looking
for with a special stain, and you can keep a set of control blocks for
Massons trichrome (connective tissue), etc, etc. and cut your own controls.
 In some ways, this is better as you have good quality assurance over a
long period of time. It is certainly cheaper, plus one block provides many
slides at far less expense. 

Good luck -  
Gayle Callis
MT,HT,HTL(ASCP)
Research Histopathology Supervisor
Veterinary Molecular Biology 
Montana State University - Bozeman
PO Box 173610
Bozeman MT 59717-3610
406 994-6367 (lab with voice mail)
406 994-4303 (FAX)



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