Slices from frozen brain tissue - (May/15/2006 )

Hi there,

I shall make slices from frozen brain (rat).
The tissue has just been frozen away in buffer
(presumably containing GITC and b-Mercaptoethanol to inactivated RNAses)
at -80°C.
It has not been fixed yet.

Is it possible to do the fixing just before cutting or not?

What should I use for fixation? Paraformaldehyd?

We usually fix rat brain immediately after removal from brain into 4% paraformaldehyde. We leave it for abt 6-8 hrs and then dehydrate it with 30% sucrose ( can take upto 3 days) and then section it.