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. 2020 Oct-Dec;61(4):1077-1083.
doi: 10.47162/RJME.61.4.10.

Tissue microarrays - brief history, techniques and clinical future

Alina Elena Ştefan  1 , Daniela Gologan, Matthew O Leavitt, Sorin Muşat, Iancu Emil Pleşea, Liane Gloria Raluca Stan, Răzvan Mihail Pleşea, Manuella Militaru
Affiliations

Tissue microarrays - brief history, techniques and clinical future

Alina Elena Ştefan et al. Rom J Morphol Embryol. 2020 Oct-Dec.

Abstract

Introduction and aim: There is a growing need for better, cheaper and faster histopathological diagnostic. The authors reviewed the main steps of the efforts towards the improvement of the pre-analytical phase of tissue processing for histological examination.

Results: Since their introduction decades ago tissue microarrays (TMAs) proved their value by increasing efficiency, standardization and accuracy of many histological techniques, such as histochemistry, histoenzymology, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, etc. By allowing the simultaneous analysis and comparison of multiple different tissues on a single histology slide (up to 1000 individual samples), TMAs are also having a significant economic advantage (consumables and labor). From its first description until recent years, the TMA techniques have evolved steadily but slowly despite many attempts to adapt it for clinical diagnostics. In this paper, we are reviewing the main techniques of obtaining TMA blocks from the beginning to the present day, as well as recent developments that are expanding their scope into high accuracy/efficiency clinical diagnostics.

Conclusions: Considering recent developments, we believe that the prospect of high-throughput histology might be achievable in the not-so-distant future.

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Conflict of interest statement

Alina Elena Ştefan, Daniela Gologan and Sorin Muşat are employed by LUMEA Inc., Lehi, Utah, USA, who are manufacturing BxChip™ (Patent US D836796 S, 2017).

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Vegetal TMA – Muşat method: (A) Paraffin donor tissue sampling device; (B) Donor paraffin block; (C) Removing the donor tissue from the sampling device; (D) Empty vegetal tissue microarray and donor tissue samples of different sizes; (E) Loaded TMA block; (F) TMA section; (G) HE-stained slide of a vegetal TMA section. HE: Hematoxylin–Eosin; TMA: Tissue microarray.
Figure 2
Figure 2
BxChip™ TMA: (A and B) Loading the BxChip™ with biopsies; (C) Placing the BxChip™ in a histological cassette between two reticulated sponges; (D) BxChip™ paraffin block; (E) HE-stained slide of a BxChip™ section. HE: Hematoxylin–Eosin; TMA: Tissue microarray
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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