shipping whole-mounts

[Russell Wyeth]

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Hello,

I need to ship a number of dehydrated immunohistochemical whole-mounts,
and I hope someone may have some experience they can share.  My
preparations are thick (100s of microns) and currently mounted in DPX.  
They are so thick, that the DPX is unlikely to cure sufficiently and
will flow out during shipping.  I could seal with nail polish, but I
have found in the past that it can be difficult to ensure a full seal is
maintained.  That is not a big problem if the slides are kept flat, but
that is impossible to do during shipping.  Would it be worth unmounting,
and stepping back to 70% EtOH and thus shipping inside microcentrifuge
tubes?  Any thoughts on the effect that might have on labeling
(polyclonal primary antibodies and AlexFluor or Dylight secondaries).
Thoughts and suggestions appreciated.

Regards,
Russell


--

Russell Wyeth
Biology, St Francis Xavier University
P.O. Box 5000 Antigonish, NS B2G 2W5 Canada
Shipping: 1 West St. Antigonish, NS B2G 2W5 Canada
http://people.stfx.ca/rwyeth/
Ph: 9028673886 Fx: 9028672389
Cell: 9023180250

[Brad Amos]

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Dear Russell,
                      I have had similar problems with Fluoromount (now
called Histomount) which, like DPX,  is dissolved in xylene. These mountants
do not cure: they simply solidify through solvent loss.  The reason they
leak during shipping is that you ship them in a sealed container. The
concentration of xylene vapor in the sealed container then rises until the
outer rim of mountant (which is the only region that was solid) softens and
liquefies. Try making ventilation holes in the shipping container, and then
make a test shipment without the valuable specimens but with the same
mountant. Provided the preps were left to dry for several days at room
temperature, the release of xylene vapor during shipment will not be enough
to cause a hazard or attract attention.
Brad Amos

[tineke vendrig]

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Dear all,

Maybe it is possible to mount them on a watch-glass? This is a slide with a
hole, you can cover it afterwards with, of course DPX, but also with a eax
(or parrafin) or with nailpollish...I dont know, but it might help....

Tineke Vendrig
TU Delft

2011/8/7 Brad Amos <[hidden email]>

> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> *****
>
> Dear Russell,
>                      I have had similar problems with Fluoromount (now
> called Histomount) which, like DPX,  is dissolved in xylene. These
> mountants
> do not cure: they simply solidify through solvent loss.  The reason they
> leak during shipping is that you ship them in a sealed container. The
> concentration of xylene vapor in the sealed container then rises until the
> outer rim of mountant (which is the only region that was solid) softens and
> liquefies. Try making ventilation holes in the shipping container, and then
> make a test shipment without the valuable specimens but with the same
> mountant. Provided the preps were left to dry for several days at room
> temperature, the release of xylene vapor during shipment will not be enough
> to cause a hazard or attract attention.
> Brad Amos
>