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A.2. Muscle tissue
Muscle tissues are very rich in water and this causes the formation, during freezing, of large ice crystals
within and between the muscle fibres. In addition, it is important in order to morphologically evaluate the
muscle tissues to have a cross section.
The PrestoCHILL is used to freeze the muscle specimen quickly and in the correct position, through a
technique different from the standard one. Instead to put the specimen on the spatula and move it inside the
mould through a sliding movement, the sample must be put directly into the mould.
1. Prepare a drop of MCC on the tip of the spatula. Take the specimen with tweezers so as to have the
section of interest free and wet it with the drop of MCC.
2. Place the specimen in the mould so that the muscle fibres are vertical, this will provide cross section
orientation for the cut.
3. Holding the specimen firmly, fill the mould with MCC. Then place the chuck and heat extractor and
wait for the freezing time to elapse.
4. Extract the block and cut and stain the slide.
At the end of the freezing and cutting processes, it is possible to follow the BOP 105
procedure in order to further improve the quality of the muscle tissue sections.
Mould with smaller well give a faster freezing and consequently a better quality.
See code MLD4415 and MLD4410.
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