[Histonet] Frozen TMA's

[Thomas Crowell]

Hello all,

I'm hoping that there are some experts among the histonetters who have 
mastered the technique of creating frozen tissue microarray blocks, and 
would be willing to share some of the details with our laboratory.  We are 
currently using a 2.5mm Harris uni-core to make a 4X5 template, and using 
the same core size to sample tissues - the cores fit nicely into the 
templates, however the interface between the tissue core and the OCT block 
is creating much havoc in trying to obtain reproducible sequential 
cryosections (sections curl up, drag along the blade, compress).  Smearing 
a layer of OCT onto the block surface does help to fill in the interface 
irregularities, but only alleviates the problem for 3- 5 sections.

Any suggestions for improvement would be greatly appreciated!

Tom Crowell
BiogenIdec
Cambridge, MA