Optimal cutting temperature compound

Frozen section procedure: tissue embedded in optimal cutting temperature compound, mounted on a chuck in a cryostat and ready for section production

Optimal cutting temperature (OCT) compound is used to embed tissue samples prior to frozen sectioning on a microtome-cryostat. This process is undertaken so as to mount slices (sections) of a sample onto slides for analysis.

Components

From MSDS:

  • 5–15% polyvinyl alcohol
  • 1–10% polyethylene glycol
  • 75–95% non-reactive ingredients

See also

References

Further reading

  • Turbett, Gavin; Sellner, Loryn (1997). "The use of optimal cutting temperature compound can inhibit amplification by polymerase chain reaction". Diagnostic Molecular Pathology. 6 (5): 298–303. doi:10.1097/00019606-199710000-00009. PMID 9458390.


Uses material from the Wikipedia article Optimal cutting temperature compound, released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.