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. 2014 Apr 17;3(2):103–136. doi: 10.3390/microarrays3020103

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© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

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The Vogel technique—drilling of the holes of the recipient block. (A) Drill grinder in a drill stand with a cutting disk (Proxxon GmbH, Föhren, Germany). (B) Tissue punches of different inner diameters (0.3 mm to 1.0 mm) constructed out of routine needles. In case needles are commercially not provided with a stylet, wires or other needles may be used as stylets. Infusion caps (red pieces) (C) Skin punches of different inner diameters (1–5 mm; Kai Industries). The stylet of a bone marrow biopsy needle (asterisk) can help to push the PTCBs out of the skin punches after the narrow (arrows) was widened manually with a drill bit (arrowhead). Nowadays, the skin punches are also provided with a built-in stylet; however, this stylet may be easily jammed by paraffin and may break (own unpublished observation). (D) Resharpened commercial paraffin tissue punch (Beecher Instruments, Inc.), which was waste material of a TMA core facility after breakage of the tip of the cannula. (E) A water bath made of polyvinylchloride mounted on a microcompound table (x-y table) which is fixed to a drill stand equipped with a drill grinder (Proxxon GmbH, Föhren, Germany). A standard paraffin block is fixed within the water bath for drilling of the holes. (F–H) Computer numerical control (CNC) drilling machine. The water bath is fixed to a bench vice of the CNC drilling machine. The holes of the recipient block are drilled under water (cooling effect and floating off the paraffin debris). (I) Paraffin recipient block perfectly drilled by the CNC drilling machine. (J) Section of a paraffin recipient block with a honeycomb pattern to enlarge the number of installed PTCBs. Perfect drilling by the CNC machine. (K) Drilling the holes of a recipient block made of optimal cutting temperature (OCT) medium for frozen TMAs. The OCT block is mounted on a microtome clamp, which is fixed to the microcompound table on the drill stand. The clamp was cooled in a freezer before drilling. (L) Filled frozen TMA mounted on the clamp of a freezing microtome. (M) Fully automated tissue arrayer using the drilling technique (TMA Grand Master, 3DHistech, Budapest, Hungary).