re-coversliping old slides or I love the smell of victory..
Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2022 4:59 pm
I bought a set of 100 Histology slides on eBay. They are old and as a result are high quality thin sections, from a medical school.
However, several of the slides (disclosed) had media that was cracked so badly that you couldn't even see the tissue samples. One was a thin section embryo that had just enough of a window, in the cracked media, so that I could see that the tissue sample underneath was a master work of the art, with world class staining.
I consulted this forum and the internet. "Just remove the old cover slip and put a new one on". What could be simpler.
First soak the old slide in xylene.
According to the internet if you are are in the nosebleed seats and someone on the 50 yard line spills a teaspoon of xylene on a windy day, you're either dead on the spot or will grow a third eye. At 73, I could use a 3rd eye so I forged ahead. I did put the xylene in a glass jar, used forceps to take the slide in and out, put the glass jar in a plastic lidded container and used my upstairs outside front porch as my work bench.
It worked! I even reused the old cover slip which was slightly oversized and I only had normal sized new ones.
What did I learn. IT ISN'T WORTH IT!
Even though it is very hard to get thin sectioned (< 12ยต) with anything but H&E stain, it still isn't (in my opinion) worth it, unless you have a laboratory set up for it and hundreds of slides to do at once.
These are samples of the before and after:
Before:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/196001110 ... ed-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/196001110 ... ed-public/
After:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/196001110 ... ed-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/196001110 ... ed-public/
However, several of the slides (disclosed) had media that was cracked so badly that you couldn't even see the tissue samples. One was a thin section embryo that had just enough of a window, in the cracked media, so that I could see that the tissue sample underneath was a master work of the art, with world class staining.
I consulted this forum and the internet. "Just remove the old cover slip and put a new one on". What could be simpler.
First soak the old slide in xylene.
According to the internet if you are are in the nosebleed seats and someone on the 50 yard line spills a teaspoon of xylene on a windy day, you're either dead on the spot or will grow a third eye. At 73, I could use a 3rd eye so I forged ahead. I did put the xylene in a glass jar, used forceps to take the slide in and out, put the glass jar in a plastic lidded container and used my upstairs outside front porch as my work bench.
It worked! I even reused the old cover slip which was slightly oversized and I only had normal sized new ones.
What did I learn. IT ISN'T WORTH IT!
Even though it is very hard to get thin sectioned (< 12ยต) with anything but H&E stain, it still isn't (in my opinion) worth it, unless you have a laboratory set up for it and hundreds of slides to do at once.
These are samples of the before and after:
Before:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/196001110 ... ed-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/196001110 ... ed-public/
After:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/196001110 ... ed-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/196001110 ... ed-public/