C.Drop is formulated to allow cells to spread in a thin layer on appropriately coated glass slides. Cells should be suspended in C.Drop at an optimum density to form a monolayer for the size of cell presentation desired.  The drop can be manually moved around to create a larger, thinner layer of cells.

 

C.Drop dries to form a scaffolding around cells. This prevents the loss of any material from the slide. Thus an examiner gets a true stoichiometric presentation of everything that was in the sample. This also prevents cross contamination during staining.

 

The gel takes about an hour to dry at room temperature. However putting the slides in front of moving air, like in front of a fan can reduce this time to 20 to 30 minutes. The slide can also be dried in an oven or on a slide warmer set between 45 and 60 C within 10 to 20 mins. Dried slides can be stored for more than a year prior to staining.

 

Fixed cells suspended in C.Drop will maintain for up to a year as long as the tube is tightly capped.