[A novel method for fabrication of tissue microarray].

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Tissue chip (tissue microarray, TMA) is one of the most important biochip techniques, just following the gene chip and the protein chip, which is one of the most important functional genomics and proteomics research methods in the post-genomic era. However, the present TMA technology has certain shortcomings, such as lack of advanced instruments, tedious procedure, and low sampling accuracy, etc. This new method was designed to improve the technology of TMA. METHODS: A common microscope was installed with a special holing needle, a sampling needle, and a proper box to fix paraffin blocks on the microscope carrier. With the precise mechanical control of microscope, the holing procedure on the recipient paraffin blocks and sampling procedure of core tissue biopsies were performed with the re-equipped microscope. The precise observation and localization of sampling regions were also performed using the same microscope equipped with a stereoscope. RESULTS: The new method simplified TMA procedure, and the whole process of holing, locating, and sampling was performed with the same instrument on the same platform. The single-use holing and sampling needles were first applied to maintain higher accuracy and to avoid the tissue remains and contamination among different samples. And high-qualified tissue chips of colorectal tumors were produced successfully by the new method. CONCLUSION: Using the re-equipped common microscope to fabricate tissue microarrays is a simple, reliable, cost-effective,and well-applicable technique.