ABSTRACT
Objective To design and develop a reliable,ease-to-use and cheap tissue microarryer for making tissue microarrays,and discuss its characteristics.Methods According to the facture procedure and principle of tissue microarray construction,HT-1 tissue microarrayer was designed and developed.The tissue microarrayer consisted of a recipient paraffin block molding machine,a punch needle,a negative-pressure embedding instrument,and a special manipulator.Using HT-1 tissue microarrayer,the array holes in recipient paraffin block could be punched by single-shaping technique in one action in several seconds,while no chapping was guaranteed.During the TMAs paraffin block embedding process,the remnant air bubble between the tissue cylinders and array holes in recipient paraffin block could be exhausted rapidly and completely.Results Using HT-1 tissue microarrayer,an array holes recipient paraffin block(several to several hundreds holes)could be made in several seconds.Several TMAs blocks with 56 tissue cylinders(1.5 mm in diameter)were constructed easily and quickly within 20 min.Under HE and immunostaining procedures,the tissue cores were well aligned,and orientation was properly done.The tissue cores on the slide maintained intact histological structure.The tissue structure and background of the HE and immunostaining were clear.There was less sample loss(the loss rate was less than 1.0%?1.1%).Conclusion HT-1 tissue microarrayer is a simple,economical and high efficiency/cost(E/C)and easy-to-use device.