The reason John Kiernan hasn't heard of "Michel's fixative" is that there 
ain't no such animal. Michel's transport medium - whose lengthy formula 
someone posted a day or so ago - is not a fixative at all, though it is 
frequently labeled as such - even by a large university service I have 
occasion to send stuff to. It's a transport medium - the commercial Zeus 
medium is probably similar, but RPMI transport medium is not interchangeable=20
with it.

The original reference is Michel B. Milner Y. David K. Preservation of 
tissue-fixed immunoglobulins in skin biopsies of patients with lupus 
erythematosus and bullous diseases – preliminary report. J Invest Derm 
1973:59;449-452.

Everyone pronounces it mee-SHELL, like the Beatles song, but I am not sure 
that this pronunciation is correct.

It's important not to confuse fixatives with transport media. Several 
so-called fixatives, widely touted as non-formaldehyde fixatives, are 
transport media.

Once again, folks, you've gotta know what's in your materials, and Big Busin
ess doesn't want you to know.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN