title: No-cost manual method for preparation of tissue microarrays having high quality comparable to semiautomated methods.
abstract: Manual tissue microarray (TMA) construction had been introduced to avoid the high cost of automated and semiautomated techniques. The cheapest and simplest technique for constructing manual TMA was that of using mechanical pencil tips. This study was carried out to modify this method, aiming to raise its quality to reach that of expensive ones. Some modifications were introduced to Shebl's technique. Two conventional mechanical pencil tips of different diameters were used to construct the recipient blocks. A source of mild heat was used, and blocks were incubated at 38°C overnight. With our modifications, 3 high-density TMA blocks were constructed. We successfully performed immunostaining without substantial tissue loss. Our modifications increased the number of cores per block and improved the stability of the cores within the paraffin block. This new, modified technique is a good alternative for expensive machines in many laboratories.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt. abdofoda2009@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Abd Al-Rahman Mohammad
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Foda
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D057205:Automation, Laboratory; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics*; D015820:Cadherins / Q000235:genetics; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D066246:ErbB Receptors / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D016612:Paraffin Embedding / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D046888:Tissue Array Analysis / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000592:standards
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D015820:Cadherins; C512478:EGFR protein, human; D066246:ErbB Receptors