A previous tech left a ton of slides of sliced, thaw-mounted, fixed and frozen mouse tissue in the -20C freezer, and I am trying to decide if I have to just throw them out. We may eventually go back to mouse work, but not for at least 6 months, and these sections are more than 3 years old. Are they still usable for immunofluorescence? What about chemical stains like Verhoeff-Van Gieson? Should I just toss them and hope there is still some left of the original tissue in the -80C?
1- Storage of unprocessed, frozen, and cryopreserved human tissues. Expiration dates of frozen and frozen cryopreserved human tissue should not exceed 5 years from the date of processing, unless a longer expiration date has been approved by competent authorities.
2- Storage of lyophilized or dehydrated human tissues. Expiration dates of lyophilized or dehydrated human tissue should not exceed 5 years from the date of processing, unless a longer expiration date has been approved by competent authorities.
3- Storage of frozen and cryopreserved human tissues. The expiration date of refrigerated musculoskeletal human tissue should not 5 days from the date of recovery Human skin should be stored refrigerated for not longer than 14 days.
The storage temperature of the tissue is an important element to be considered.
I agree with the suggestion to do a test staining on a few slides.
I have previously used fixed, sectioned and mounted tissue that was >3 years old for IF with great succes, but these were stored at -80C, where we always store crypreserved tissue AND sections. I recommend that you move your slides from -20C to -80C for the next 6 months if your test staining looks OK.
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