Varying thicknesses at cryostat

[KCalvin]

Hi,

I am having problems with getting consistent thickness on my tissue cuts at the cryostat. I am sectioning rodent brains 20 microns thick at -17 C. What always ends up happening is that I get a decent looking section that seems to be thicker than 20 microns and the subsequent cut would yield something all together too thin (usually the tissue just crumbles). How can I effectively fix this problem?

Thanks for all the help!

[gula]

That can have several causes.
inadequate cutting angle; too small
chuck with old oct; getting elastic like rubber
anything not fixed enough in the cryocut (chuck, knife)
slidethickness too small adjusted

There is a real website for teaching cryocutting:
http://www.pathologyinnovations.com/index.html

gula