MadSci Network: Neuroscience
Query:

Re: will carosafe affect the lens in the eye that is packaged in it?

Date: Fri Jul 30 16:20:20 2004
Posted By: Steve Mack, Post-doc/Fellow, Molecular and Cell Biology
Area of science: Neuroscience
ID: 1073872072.Ns
Message:

Hi Rachel,

I'm sorry that it has taken so long to address your question. Part of the delay has been due to none of us really being sure exactly what area of science your question belongs to. After several changes in category, it wound up in Neuroscience.

Carosafe is a product of the Caroline Biological Supply (CBS) company. It is a propylene-glycol based mixture that is used as a preservative for tissue specimens. As far as I can tell, it is usually used after the tissue has been fixed with formaldehyde (aka formalin) or sometimes alcohol, both to prevent tissue deterioration and the development of mold, and to reduce exposure to formaldehde.

The materials data saftey sheet (MSDS) (16k PDF) for Carosafe says that it is composed of Propylene Glycol, 2-amino-2-ethyl-1,3-propanediol, and Ethylene Glycol Phenyl Ether in addition to some residual formaldehyde from the fixation process. The MSDS also suggests that Carosafe is hazardous to the eyes, but of course this is in living organisms; the MSDS doesn't address the effects of Carosafe on fixed eyes.

That having been said, I called CBS, but I wasn't able to find out much in particular about the effect of Carosafe on lenses. So, I asked an entomologist friend of mine to take a look at some specimens. Here's what she had to say,

"I'm afraid I have no conclusive evidence on the effects of carosafe on eyeballs. I looked at some pigeons, rats, smelly fish and salamanders pickled first in formalin and then in carosafe, which is used mostly to make the formalin-soaked specimens safer for students to handle. So I also looked at some fish in formalin, without carosafe, to see if there was any difference between those and the carosafe treated ones. I couldn't see any difference.

"The eyes on the fish looked pretty normal, both with and without carosafe. Some eyes were a little wrinkly, regardless carosafe or not. The pigeon and rat eyes, when I pulled back their eyelids, were cloudy so you couldn't really see the pupil anymore, but I didn't have any non-carosafe specimens to compare those to, so I don't know if that's the effect of carosafe or formalin or just pickling in general."

So, it looks like Carosafe doesn't have much more of an effect on the eyes of fish than formaldehyde fixation does. I hope that this information helps you a little bit. It is hard to be more helpful without more information about the type of effect you are asking about (shrinkage, swelling, cracking, cloudiness, discoloration, etc.).

Keep asking those questions!


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