Method for producing tissue microarray blocks of cell cultures

摘要

A method and apparatus are provided for forming high-yield tissue microarray blocks capable of producing 1,000 or more replicate slides. In one embodiment, a plurality of donor tissue samples are minced and suspended in separate molten liquid carriers to form a plurality of separate two-phase mixtures of solid minced tissue and molten wax. Each of the two-phase mixtures is preferably formed into elongated columns and transferred into a separate well of a microarray block. A method and apparatus are provided for forming the elongated molten wax columns with minced tissue evenly distributed along the length of each column. The apparatus for forming the array includes an extrusion mechanism for transferring the columns of two-phase mixtures into the deep wells of the microarray block. The two-phase mixture may alternately be cooled and allowed to solidify before being transferred into the microarray block. An alternate embodiment is provided wherein cell cultures are utilized as starting material as opposed to solid donor tissue samples.

主权项

1. A method for use with a plurality of donor cell culture samples and a paraffin recipient block provided with a plurality of wells having respective cross sections to form a tissue microarray block, comprising the steps of:
suspending each of the plurality of donor cell culture samples in a separate liquid carrier to form a mixture of cell culture and liquid carrier for each of the plurality of donor cell culture samples, forming each of said mixtures of cell culture and liquid carrier into a column having a cross section approximating the cross section of one of the plurality of wells in said paraffin recipient block and a length, transferring at least a portion of the length of each of said columns into the respective one of said plurality of wells of said paraffin recipient block to create the tissue microarray block, the length of each of said columns being independent of the size of the respective donor cell culture sample.