From Elizabeth Chlipala


What bone are you decalcifing.  We do a lot of work with rabbit knee
joints.  We decal in 10% formic acid for about 1 - 2 weeks.  A large
volume of decal to the specimen size, we change the decal about once a
week.  If its slabs of bone lets say 10mm x 10mm x 3-4mm it would take
about 3 -4 days to decal in a 5-10% formic acid solution.  If you want
to look at some decalcified sections I have some on my web page, address
at the bottom of the page, I currently have no rabbit joint pictures,
but I have some rat, dog, and mouse joint sections.  All of these
sections were decaled in formic acid.

Liz

 
-----Original Message-----
From: Chan Wai Kam [mailto:doscwk@nus.edu.sg] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2003 2:10 AM
To: HistoNet Server
Subject: Resin and formic acid decalcification

Hi all,

I'm currently using 30% formic acid with sodium citrate for
decalcification of rabbit bone which takes from 1 to 3 weeks to
complete.  I'm trying to look for a more rapid decalcifying solution
which would not affect staining results.  I came across mention of a
resin and formic acid decalcifying solution (Win-3000 RAF) from Winthrop
Lab in an old histology book which claims to be very rapid and superior
to just using formic acid alone.  Does anyone know where this resin can
be purchased, or is there any other better alternative?

Thanks
Julee C
National University of Singapore