Rebecca Ashley at the Wyoming State Vet Lab in Laramie asks >> I had a biopsy today that was nearly impossible to see on the sponges during embedding or in the block. I've heard mention of marking these with eosin to make them easier to see. Has anyone done this? Or do you use some other type of marking dye for this purpose?<<
You must not use eosin (or other fluorescent dyes such as Mercurochrome) to mark tissue during grossing - the persistent dye interferes with FISH - you don't want eosin in your tissue processing system at all. As Cindi (where?) notes >>We use safranin at the grossing station and it is a dark pink at embedding. Works really well in our hands. Added plus is no fluorescent issues that you can have with eosin.<< I've found safranin O (not saffron) to be highly satisfactory, and it is not fluorescent. A solution of it is used by microbiology labs as the counterstain for the Gram stain, and this preparation is highly satisfactory and you don't have to buy anything if the lab across the hall already has it. I've heard of using hematoxylin for this purpose, but have never seen it done. Bob Richmond Samurai Pathologist Maryville TN _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet