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Dear Dr. Pease--

On 7/15/2014 3:02 PM, Mary Ellen Pease wrote:
> I am interested in sectioning human optic nerve (unfixed) with a vibratome
> (without freezing or embedding). Is this feasible? I am having difficulty finding
> recent information regarding vibratoming fresh tissues online. It seems most lightly
> fix and or embed their tissues in gelatin before sectioning.
Check with a slice electrophysiologist--they do this sort of thing all 
the time (albeit not in human tissue).  There should be a bunch of them 
in the Neuroscience department at Hopkins.

Basically, you would need to glue the optic nerve to a chuck with 
superglue.  You would put a small block of agar immediately behind the 
nerve to steady it during cutting, so that it doesn't get bent over from 
the force of the blade.

Safety first: since this is human tissue, use a splash shield over the 
vibratome bath, and of course wear gloves.

Good luck!

Martin Wessendorf

-- 
Martin Wessendorf, Ph.D.                   office: (612) 626-0145
Assoc Prof, Dept Neuroscience                 lab: (612) 624-2991
University of Minnesota             Preferred FAX: (612) 624-8118
6-145 Jackson Hall, 321 Church St. SE    Dept Fax: (612) 626-5009
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