Re: Paraformaldehyde fixative

Richard Moldwin (rmoldwin@midway.uchicago.edu)
Tue, 30 Apr 1996 10:59:30 -0500

At 09:17 AM 4/29/96 EST, you wrote:
>First, make it fresh. I make a fresh batch each week and store @ 4C.
>For 2% I dissolve 2g paraformaldehyde in 75 mL PBS, add a few drops of 5M KOH
>until dissolved, adjust pH to 7.0 with HCl.
>Daniel
>CDC

I've read this in several places, that one must make fresh PF solutions. I
have used 2% PF in PBS over a year old (stored dark at 4C) and have not
noticed any problems. I have also analyzed samples a month or two after
fixing without problems, and no apparent signal (FITC) degradation. Is
there any hard data that shows that PF solutions go bad? If so, what
happens to it? Is there any reference for this?

--Rich
^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
Richard Moldwin, M.D., Ph.D.
Section of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
University of Chicago Hospitals
Wyler Room C408, MC 4060
5841 S. Maryland Ave.
Chicago, IL 60637

E-mail: rmoldwin@midway.uchicago.edu
WWW: http://rmoldwin.bsd.uchicago.edu
Phone 312-702-6808
Fax 312-702-9881


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