Histopathology and Tissue Shared Resource
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Educational ResourcesSubmission Guidelines
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- How long should I fix my tissues?
- Can tissues be left in fixative for too long?
- How should I prepare my tissues for frozen sections?
- How long will it take to get my blocks/slides back?
- I have a grant/manuscript/thesis due this week, can I get my slides back faster than 5 to 7 business days?
- I want to stain a specific tissue in my slide, do you do specialty stains?
- How should I acknowledge services performed at the HTSR in my manuscript/grant/thesis?
- On the submission form, what do you mean by number of sections per slide?
1. How long should I fix my tissues?
Tissues should be fixed for in a sufficient volume of fixative for at least 24 hours. Our most common fixative is neutral buffered formalin and tissues need to be in at least 5 times volume of formalin compared to tissue size.
2. Can tissues be left in fixative for too long?
With time, you will observe some loss of morphology with pro-longed fixation (fixing tissues for months in formalin). We recommend 2 weeks as a maximum, at this time it is better to bring tissues on down to us to embed. If your tissues have fixed for longer, you can still get useable data, do not hesitate to bring down over-fixed tissues.
3. How should I prepare my tissues for frozen sections?
We recommend placing your tissues in a cryo-mold, filling with OCT mounting medium and snap freezing in dry ice cold isopentane or liquid nitrogen. If you do not have OCT, you can snap freeze your tissues directly in dry ice cold isopentane or in liquid nitrogen.
4. How long will it take to get my blocks/slides back?
Our standard turn around time is 5-7 business days. For embedding only, the turn around time is often shorter. If we are experiencing a period of heavy usage that would delay turnaround time, we will notify you at the time of submission.
5. I have a grant/manuscript/thesis due this week, can I get my slides back faster than 5 to 7 business days?
Yes, we have a RUSH service with a turn around time of 3-5 days. We charge $15.00 for the first 50 blocks/slides needed, plus $0.25 for each block/slide over 50.
6. I want to stain a specific tissue in my slide, do you do specialty stains?
Yes, we have a number of special stains that we do routinely, and can always investigate and optimize stains that are non-routine.
7. How should I acknowledge services performed at the HTSR in my manuscript/grant/thesis?
In the acknowledgement sections, please add "We acknowledge the Histopathology Tissue Shared Resource for histology services."
8. On the submission form, what do you mean by number of sections per slide?
For paraffin embedded tissues, if you samples are not overly large, we can fit multiple sections of your block onto a single slide. This way you can evaluate more tissues without an increase in cost. For frozen tissues, we are able to do this as well, however if you will be performing sensitive post-staining procedures (e.g. IHC or in situ hybridization) that could be affected by a brief incubation at room temperature, then we recommend only placing one section on each slide.
