Special stains for frozen sections
The cryostat is a cryogenic device that makes it possible to produce frozen tissue sections with a thickness of 4 to 50 μm.
The experimental zone is maintained between -10 ° C and -50 ° C. inside a microtome allows cuts in the fabric hardened by freezing.
Applications can be diverse: structural staining, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization and laser capture.
Cryostat cutting is a fast technique of choice for the detection of so-called difficult antigen such as lipid-soluble antigens and other antigens.
With this technique, it is possible to work on fixed or non-fixed tissues.
The advantage of this technique is that there is no degradation of the antigenic sites: Protein (enzyme, receptor, mRNA ...) chemical substance (neurotransmitter ...)
The other benefits are:
- No dehydration
- No polymerization
- No heat
- No chemical reactions
Certain constituents of tissues such as lipids are degraded during the paraffin-embedded tissue preparation steps, which is why there are specific stains of frozen sections.