We have used gelatine embedding to hold small bits of tissue (autonomic
ganglia) for sectioning prior to doing immunolabelling for TEM... After
a lot of mucking around, we ended up using a 20% solution of molten
gelatine dissolved in PBS to embed the prefixed tissue. The big trick
then is to refix the gelatine block containing the tissue so that
everything is held on place and the gelatine is tough enough to
withstand sectioning on a Vibratome (or whatever you section with). (The
details are in Murphy et al (1998) J Comp Neurol,398:551-567). I would
expect that you would have to play around with the length of fixation
and so on to suit your tissue and the size of your block etc...

Hope that helps

IAN


Derek Schulze wrote:
>
> I'm trying to use gelatin to embed coral tissue which is 2 cell layers
> thick in order to view the tissue edge-on with our confocal. What
> concentration should the gelatin be?  Does anyone have a protocol to
> suggest? I've tried up to 6% gelatin but the embedded tissue pulls away
> from the gelatin when sliced.
>
> Lena

--
Professor Ian Gibbins
Anatomy & Histology
Flinders University of South Australia
GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA 5001
Australia

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