Copying from blog test

[mrsonchus]

The following set of pictures show the progress of a section, previously cut with a 'rocking' microtome. The section was then stretched in (that is - on the surface of the water in) a water-bath at about 45 deg C for about 5 minutes, enough time for the wax, which always comes from the microtome 'wrinkled' to some degree, to straighten out nicely. The section is then floated onto a slide that may or may not have an adhesive applied ('subbed') and allowed to dry, as an aid to sticking the section to the slide in readiness for the de-waxing, staining and mounting stages. The slide with the section on it is then dried vertically, allowing complete drainage of water between the section and the slide's surface, for about 1 hour at RT. The slide is then moved to an oven or warm tray, where it may now be horizontal, at about 35 deg C for a minimum of about 4 hours to finish drying and the resultant bonding of the section to the slide can be completed.
Some if not most sections will be perfectly OK without any adhesive, as long as the above drying regime is followed as a minimum. Various formulations of adhesive are useful, some of them are both effective and very simple to make at home, they will also store well for several months.

This is the section before the removal of wax, a basic idea of the embedded specimen's condition may be had at this stage....
* image's link copied from my blog pages....

seems to work but depends on link staying correct from blog pages - better to bring image into forum via 'choose file' dialogue?
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This is the section after de-waxing, sitting in 95% IPA - the section must not be allowed to dry out before it's final mounting as this would almost certainly cause significant tissue damage. More detail is becoming visible, but the alcohol alone cannot allow any more than this very limited view.
* image loaded into this forum post (using the 'choose file' and 'add the file' dialogues), from my blog pages via it's ('copied') URL...
* when 'choose file' dialog appears, entered the URL of the picture (pasted) into the explorer-filename-box instead of selecting a file from my local computer files

ws_t2_slide_1_3[1].jpg (78.89 KiB) Viewed 3868 times

seems also to work
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Here the section has been stained with 'Fast Green' whilst still soaked in alcohol, for 2 minutes then rinsed in the same alcohol for about 5 seconds. A cover-slip has been (temporarily) applied as an aid to viewing under the microscope. Much more detail is visible and the somewhat poor quality of the section can now be seen - the tissue has a lot of damage and lacks any proper integrity - useful only for testing, not for permanent addition to my collection!

ws_t2_slide_1_4[1].jpg (49.4 KiB) Viewed 3868 times

another brought into forum via URL from my Blog pages - also working
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Here the section has had the cover-slip removed and been swamped in pure 'Histoclear' clearing-agent - the reason for doing this was purely to see what would happen when transferring straight from 95% IPA into pure Histoclear - it looks as though some tissue damage has been caused, but this could have been a consequence of the transfer rather than the chemistry - this slide was now subbed and may simply have reached the limit of it's ability to tolerate manipulation.... One thing that is apparent is that the stain has remained in the tissues rather than being washed out or removed by the sudden change to Histoclear, a useful piece of information to have.

ws_t2_slide_1_6[1].jpg (65.77 KiB) Viewed 3868 times

end of test post