[1764] A Simple and Flexible Device To Pour the Holes in Paraffin Tissue Microarrays

UF Vogel. University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University, Tuebingen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany

Background: Paraffin tissue microarrays (PTMAs) are constructed by injecting paraffin tissue core biopsies (PTCBs) into preformed holes in a recipient block. These holes can be punched (Kononen), drilled (Vogel) or poured (Mengel). Devices to pour the holes normally consist of a modified steel mold with steel pins at the bottom (Figure 1A; TMA builder, LabVision). So, the size of the recipient block and the arrangement and the number of the holes are determined by the steel mold. To make the system more flexible and to reduce the manufacturing cost I designed a simple device which uses ordinary steel molds of different size, spacer plates with steel pins and a perforated plate. In contrast to the modified steel molds the steel pins are placed from above into the ordinary steel mold.
Design: Spacer plates (nickel silver) were equipped with different numbers of steel pins (length: 16 mm; diameter: 1.0 mm) in different arrangements (Figure 1C; S spacer plate; maximum amount of steel pins). A perforated plate (nickel silver) was constructed corresponding to the spacer plate with the maximum amount of steel pins (Figure 1C; P perforated plate). Different ordinary steel molds (tissue-tek) (Figure 1C; M mold), a plastic cassette (optional)(Figure 1C; C cassette), the perforated plate and different spacer plates were put together like a sandwich (Figure 1B) and filled with liquid paraffin. After solidification, the sandwich was disassembled to release the recipient block (Figure 1C; R recipient block). Paraffin tissue core biopsies were manually injected into the holes of the recipient block. The PTMAs were cut and the sections were stained according to routine procedures.


Results: PTMAs with different size and with different numbers and different arrangements of the PTCBs were successfully constructed.
Conclusions: With the novel device consisting of spacer plates and a perforated plate it is possible to pour recipient blocks using ordinary steel molds of different size making the system very flexible. The manufacturing cost for the new device is less than for modified steel molds.
Category: Techniques

Wednesday, March 11, 2009 1:00 PM

Poster Session VI # 211, Wednesday Afternoon