Finding the Appropriate Medium

Thursday March 20, 2008

Mounting medium is necessary in order to preserve staining and visualize tissue sections. The most important way to narrow down your mounting choices is by determining the type of probe used to stain the sections. The two main categories are fluorescent probes (fluorescein, rhodamine, Texas Red) or chromogenic substrates (AEC, AP, FastRed and HRP). Some chromogens, such as the alcohol-soluble FastRed or AEC, require an aqueous-based mounting medium while others do not (DAB). A related decision involves the permanency of the mounting media; some harden for a permanent mount while others remain viscous. Especially for fluorescence, signal will be preserved with additional anti-fading properties with most aqueous-based medium, although products that harden may be easier to work with. Nail polish is an easy solution to stabilizing coverslips for any type of mounting solution. Bonus features abound for mounting medium. Some of the new medium, such as the Ultramount, dry optically clear and do not even require a coverslip, and several are made for use with alcohol-soluble and non alcohol-soluble reagents (such as Clearmount). Another nice feature is the presence of DAPI, a useful nuclear stain. One note of caution: not all media is compatible with every fluorophore or stain, so it is always a good idea to try an unimportant or small section of the slide to ensure signal staining and fluorescence remain intact. Narrow down your requirements by determining the need for aqueous or non-aqueous, fluorescent or chromophore visualization and then choose the features that would be the most useful for future applications (anti-fading, long term storage, photobleaching resistance), and then enjoy the images you’ll create.

Elizabeth Hawkes
Research Associate
University of California, San Francisco

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Company	Calbiochem	Dako	Invitrogen	Millipore (CHEMICON / Upstate / Linco)	Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc.
Item	FluorSave™ Reagent	Ultramount, Aqueous Permanent Mounting Medium, Ready-to-Use	CLEARMOUNT	LIGHT DIAGNOSTICS Mounting Fluid (non-permanent)	UltraCruzTM Mounting Medium
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Description	Liquid. Aqueous mounting medium for use in conjunction with fluorescent tracers such as fluorescein, rhodamine, and phycobiliprotein probes. Preserves fluorescence-stained tissue sections. Specially formulated without glycerol... more	This mounting medium does not require cover-slipping. It is specially formulated for permanent mounting of tissue specimens, cell smears and cytospins which have been stained with histochemical and immunohistochemical methods for viewing by light microscopy... more	Ready-to-use solution This water-based mounting media is for permanent mounting of alcohol soluble and non-alcohol soluble substrates. Can be used with or without a cover slip. Storage: Room temperature more	CHEMICON's 5013 liquid mounting fluid is a non-permanent glycerol-based mounting fluid ideal for fluorescent applications. It has been specially formulated to extend the "glow-time" of popular fluorochromes such as FITC, Cy2, and Rhodamine... more	containing 1.5 µg/ml 4’,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) for DNA counterstaining for preservation of fluorescence-stained tissue sections inhibits photobleaching of probes containing fluorescein, Texas Red, Rhodamine and other fluorochromes ... more
Catalog Number	345789-20ML	S196430	00-8110	5013	sc-24941
Quantity	20 ml	15 mL	100 ml	10	10 ml
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