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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

[A unified series of microtomes for biology and medicine on the basis of rotational microtome].

A block-module constructor for the assembly of rotation microtomes is described. The microtomes are used for cutting fixed and native tissues. The basic rotation microtome is the main element of the microtome constructor. A set of changeable modules enables one to assemble microtomes on the basis of the basic rotation microtome for cutting fixed embedded tissue, 5-20 microns thick, fixed nonembedded tissue, 75-300 microns thick, native tissue, 150-600 microns thick, as well as a microtome-vibratome (the thickness of sections is 50-200 microns). A universal microtome combining all the mentioned-microtomes may be designed. The problems of fixed and native tissue microtomy are discussed in the paper.

Biology↗

Atomic force microscopy and nanoindentation characterization of human lamellar bone prepared by microtome sectioning and mechanical polishing technique.

Surface topography, microstructure, and micromechanical properties of human lamellar bone were characterized by atomic force microscopy and nanoindentation. The lamellar bone surfaces were prepared by two different methods: microtome sectioning and mechanical polishing. The lamellar bone surfaces prepared by mechanical polishing revealed that thin lamellae formed depressions approximately 200 nm deep, whereas the surfaces prepared by microtome sectioning were flat. Atomic force microscopy surface topographic images at higher magnification showed differences between thick and thin lamellae in polished samples, but these differences were less pronounced in microtomed samples. Roughness measurements confirmed that there was a significant difference between thick (21.0 nm) and thin lamellae (8.3 nm) in polished samples (p < 0.001). The difference in surface roughness between thick (13.9 nm) and thin lamellae (12.7 nm) in microtomed sample was statistically insignificant (p = 0.74). Higher elastic modulus values were observed for thick lamella in microtomed samples compared with that of thin lamellae, whereas measured elastic modulus differences between thick and thin lamellae in polished samples were found to be statistically insignificant.

Biomechanical Phenomena↗

A novel method for preparing histology slides without a microtome.

A study was undertaken to determine if it might be possible to prepare tissue sections on slides without the use of paraffin embedding, microtome sectioning, or cryostat sectioning which involve equipment and training not always available to scholars or professionals wishing to examine tissue microscopically. After evaluating many different reagents, cutting instruments and solid supports, we developed a method involving application of super glue to a slide, adhering a section of tissue to it, cutting the tissue with a disposable microtome blade, staining the tissue and removing the superglue with a commercially available product. The sections are similar to those sectioned on a microtome, but do not at this time equal their quality. However, histoarchitecture is preserved and individual cell morphology is usually good. We conclude that this is a viable method for preparing histology sections without the use of a microtome or cryostat, something long thought impossible. We have dubbed the method 'RAMP' (Rapid Adhesive-Mediated Procedure).

Adhesives↗

Contributions to semithin sectioning on a conventional rotary microtome.

Procedures for obtaining sections 1 micrometer thick on a conventional rotary microtome are described. Hydrophilic resin blocks with adequate hardness and elasticity for semithin sectioning are made by addition of divinylbenzene and methylmethacrylate to a commercial embedding kit. The blocks are pinched between two simple adapters and mounted in the specimen holder of a microtome. A glass knife of the Ralph type with an effective blade length of 25 mm is made from a glass slide and attached to a metal bar with paraffin. The low cost assembly is set in the steel knife holder of a conventional rotary microtome. Sections 1 micron in thickness can be cut from the resin embedded blocks. Staining with the usual staining solutions may be weak due to the thinness of the sections, but the fine resolution and low distortion achieved are compensating gains.

Animals↗

3D reconstruction based on hard tissue microtome cross-section pictures in dentistry.

The aim of this study was to examine the accuracy of the computerized 3D surface analyzing and volume measuring method in dentistry. Two different types of test objects were used in the first part of the measurements. Each sample of the two groups was cross-sectioned using a hard tissue microtome. The sections were photographed on both sides and were projected on a graphical tablet and analyzed using a computer program. The measured and calculated parameters were compared. In the second part, 200 microm thick horizontal sections were prepared from 11 human incisor roots using the hard tissue microtome. This way, five sections were prepared from the apical 2 mm of each root. The effects of section thickness and number were modeled by decreasing the inclusion rate of the obtained number of sections from 10 to 2 and its influence on the calculated results was determined. This method was suitable for the approximation and analysis of 3D parameters. The results indicated that using 200-300 microm section thickness, the measured values were approximately 8-21% lower than the real parameters.

Analysis of Variance↗

Serial sectioning of thick tissue with a novel vibrating blade microtome.

Vibrating blade microtomes are used extensively in biological research to section non-frozen tissue. There are a wide variety of commercial instruments available for this purpose, however, they are designed to cut thin sections primarily from a tissue block less than one centimeter in height. Herein is described a simple modification of a microscope frame that creates a vibrating blade microtome capable of producing a sequential series of sections through three centimeters of tissue. We illustrate the use of this device to identify and reconstruct a column of rat spinal motor neurons retrogradely labeled from a peripheral muscle.

Animals↗

Vitreous carbon: a new material for making microtome knives.

The quality of sections obtained by microtomy depends to a large extent on the quality and characteristics of the microtome knife itself. Despite the need for improved microtomy techniques, there have been few significant developments since the introduction of glass and diamond knives in the 1950's. The manufacture of microtome knives from vitreous carbon provides new possibilities for developing both improved methods and improved equipment for specimen sectioning. Vitreous carbon has unique physical properties that lend themselves to the generation of precision cutting edges. Such as edge can be obtained either by breaking a piece of vitreous carbon or by using lapidary techniques. The resultant edge seems well adapted to both thick and thin sectioning. The introduction of vitreous carbon as a sectioning tool offers a significant alternative to metal, glass and diamond knives.

Carbon↗

[A time-saving method for histo-enzymatic studies of brain tissues of animals with chronically implanted electrodes by means of a hard-section microtome (author's transl)].

A time-saving method is described for the localisation of chronically implanted electrodes in the brain of test animals by means of a "Kryostat" hard section microtome which allows both histo-topographic and histo-enzymatic investigations. This is made possible by the incorporation of a three-dimensional microtome holder.

Animals↗

Freezing technique for microtoming long specimens of small width and/or depth.

A technique is described for sectioning long but thin and/or narrow biological specimens using a freezing stage and sliding microtome. A water-saturated wood veneer platform is frozen to the stage and a saturated specimen is frozen to the veneer. The technique, which is inexpensive, permits cutting sections or viewing surfaces from specimens up to 8 cm long, while protecting the microtome knife from damage.

Freezing↗

Precise adjustment of nanometric-scale diffusion layers within a redox dendrimer molecule by ultrafast cyclic voltammetry: an electrochemical nanometric microtome.

Performing cyclic voltammetry at scan rates into the megavolt per second range allows the exploration of the nanosecond time scale as well as the creation of nanometric diffusion layers adjacent to the electrode surface. This latter property is used here to adjust precisely the diffusion layer width within the outer shell of a fourth-generation dendrimer molecule decorated by 64 [Ru(II)(tpy)2] redox centers (tpy = terpyridine). Thus the shape of the dendrimer molecule adsorbed onto the ultramicroelectrode surface can be explored voltammetrically in a way reminiscent of an analysis with a nanometric microtome. The quantitative analysis developed here applied to the experimental voltammograms demonstrates that in agreement with previous scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) studies the adsorbed dendrimer molecules are no more spherical as they are in solution but resemble more closely hemispheres resting onto the electrode surface on their diametrical planes. The same quantitative analysis gives access to the apparent diffusion coefficient featuring electron hopping between the [Ru(II)/ Ru(III)(tpy)2] redox centers distributed on the dendrimer surface. Based on the electron hopping rate constant thus measured and on a Smoluchowski-type model developed here to take into account viscosity effects during the displacement of the [Ru(II)/Ru(III)(tpy)2] redox centers around their equilibrium positions, it is shown that the [Ru(II)/Ru(III)(tpy)2] redox centers are extremely labile in their potential wells so that they may cross-talk considerably more easily than they would do in solution at an equivalent concentration.

Journal Article↗

"Giving body" to embryos. Modeling, mechanism, and the microtome in late nineteenth-century anatomy.

Reinvestigating the work of the anatomist Wilhelm His (1831-1904) shows how engaging with models in three dimensions can revise our accounts of scientific change. His is known to historians of biology for articulating a mechanical approach to embryology and for inventing a section cutter, or microtome. Focusing on the wax models that he also made in the late 1860s shows how the other two innovations were linked; reconstructing embryos from the sections, His claimed, provided compelling evidence for mechanical views. The next generation of embryologists appropriated His's work selectively. In the 1880s anatomists took up "plastic reconstruction" to visualize the complex forms of higher vertebrate, especially human, embryos. An increasingly dominant experimental embryology, by contrast, drew on His's mechanical approach but had little use for the waxes and effaced them from the history of his work. Recovering these models offers a fresh perspective on the transformation of a central science of animal life and enriches our understanding of the relations between representation in two dimensions and three.

Animals↗

Microtome shaving radiography: demonstration of loss of mammographic microcalcifications during histologic sectioning.

Mammographic-pathologic correlation of suspicious microcalcifications is essential for optimal diagnosis and local staging of early breast carcinoma. Loss of microcalcifications during histologic sectioning has been suggested as one reason for the occasional lack of microscopic visualization of microcalcifications in routinely processed breast biopsy specimens obtained for suspicious mammographic microcalcifications. Two case reports utilizing radiography of histologic shavings of stereotactic core biopsies and surgical excisional biopsies of mammographic microcalcifications provide concrete evidence of the loss of large calcific particles during the microtome process.

Breast Neoplasms↗

Neurites and growth cones in the chick embryo. Enhanced tissue preservation and visualization of HRP-labeled subpopulations in serial 25-microns plastic sections cut on a rotary microtome.

Study of axonal guidance in developing vertebrates has been hindered by an inability to readily visualize individual growth cones, determine the neuronal population from which they originate, trace their trajectories, and discern their interactions with their embryonic environment. We report a method that combines plastic embedding and serial sectioning with horseradish peroxidase labeling of subpopulations of neurons in the chick embryo. This method labels individual neurites from the soma to the tip of the growth cones, allowing their trajectory to be inferred and their identity to be determined by the position of the somata. As sections are up to 25 micron thick, entire growth cones can often be visualized without laborious reconstruction. Tissue preservation is much better than with similar material embedded in paraffin. Sections are cut relatively quickly using a steel knife on a standard rotary microtome and are suitable for subsequent electron microscopy.

Animals↗

Cryo-microtome sections of coproculture larvae of Strongyloides stercoralis and Strongyloides ratti as antigen sources for the immunodiagnosis of human strongyloidiasis.

Cryo-microtome sections of larvae of Strongyloides stercoralis and S. ratti respectively obtained from human and rat feces cultures, were used as antigens. Fluoresceinate conjugates against human IgG were employed at the ideal titer of 10 for S. stercoralis and 100 for S. ratti. The sensitivity of the indirect immunofluorescence reaction (IIF) was 94.4% and 92.5% and the specificity 94.2% and 97.1% for the two specific larval antigens, respectively. Sera from 123 persons (54 from carriers of S. stercoralis infections and 69 from controls) were submitted to the reaction. The titers of different sera varied from 20 to 2560. There was a significant linear correlation (r = 0.85 p < or = 0.001) between the antibodies from the two species of larval antigens. We conclude that both antigens may be used in the IIF reaction for the diagnosis of human strongyloidiasis. Due to the feasibility of safe and low-cost mass production of S. ratti larvae in the laboratory with a considerable economy of conjugate, their utilization in the serum diagnosis of human strongyloidiasis is recommended.

Animals↗