Creating tissue microarrays by cutting-edge matrix assembly.
Tissue microarrays have become widely adopted for effective parallel in situ analysis of hundreds of tissues placed onto single slides. Traditionally, tissue core punches are transferred into predrilled holes within a scaffold block of paraffin or other material, and sectioned transversely by a microtome to generate array sections. While core-based arraying has greatly advanced tissue analyses, some of the limitations include restricted feature sizes and numbers, variable core depths of unpredictable tissue quality and inability to array thin-walled, stratified tissue samples such as intestines, vessels or skin. Overcoming these limitations, the authors have developed a practical arraying method that combines serial cutting and edge-to-edge bonding of samples to assemble a scaffold-free array matrix -- cutting-edge matrix assembly. Using cutting-edge matrix assembly, the authors have successfully placed more than 10,000 individual tissue pieces on a single histology glass slide. The potential biomedical utility and ongoing efforts to further develop the assembly technology and analysis of high-density cutting-edge matrix assembly tissue microarrays is discussed.
Rui
Hallgeir
H
Georgetown University Medical Center, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Department of Oncology, 3970 Reservoir Road NW, Washington DC 20057-1469, USA. ruih@georgetown.edu
LeBaron
Matthew J
MJ
D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D046228:Microarray Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D008867:Microtomy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical; D046509:Tissue Culture Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D016610:Tissue Embedding / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods