freezing eyes

[estelle]

Does anyone know how to freeze eyes so they will be OK to use next year?
I have been given 30 from the local butcher and we are finished doing them for the year so I would like to keep them.
I read somwhere to put them lens side down in a saline solution but I wanted to confirm that with someone before I do it, I didn't want to waste them.
What strength saline solution would be suitable?
Estelle

[rae]

Hi!
I would imagine 9% saline would be the right concentration as this is considered "normal" saline and is what is used in hospital situations.
Although saying that I would have thought freezing the eyes would cause the lens to go cloudy and isn't the lenses one of the reason they dissect eyes.
I know our HT likes them as fresh as possible so you can actually see through the lens.The lenses go cloudy the older they are.

Lorrae

[Didee]

Hi
we have been freezing our eyeballs for a number of years. We use fish eyes as they are cheaper and easier to get hold of (I remove them from the heads ) We have no trouble with excessively cloudy lenses, but I suppose it depends on what the students are doing with the lenses.
Ours only really look at them.
Diana

[ELIZABETH]

Hi,
Normal saline is 0.9% and I've successfully frozen eyes in this solution (mind you, having read all about freezers going off during the hols.......).
LIZ

[rae]

Woops !!
I knew the Normal Saline was 0.9%!!
Sorry!!

Lorrae

[General]

A 0.9% saline solution does work, you just need to make sure the eyes are fully immersed.

Pat