METHOD FOR TISSUE SECTION IMMOBILIZATION AND RETENTION
Disclosed herein, inter alia, are methods for the transfer and manipulation of tissue sections using hydrogel substrates.
1 . A method of making a device comprising a plurality of discrete tissue samples attached to a solid support, said method comprising:
(i) binding a tissue section to a hydrogel substrate, thereby generating a sample-carrier construct;
(ii) binding the tissue section of the sample-carrier construct to the solid support; and
(iii) repeating steps (i) and (ii) to attach a plurality of discrete tissue samples to the solid support.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each tissue section is a formalin-fixed and paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue section.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each tissue section is a frozen tissue section.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a length, width, and/or diameter of each tissue section is about 4 mm to about 10 mm.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a thickness of each tissue section is about 1 μm to about 20 μm.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a thickness of each tissue section is less than 6 μm, 7 μm, 8 μm, 9 μm or 10 μm.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each tissue section comprises breast tissue, lung tissue, colon tissue, lymph tissue, kidney tissue, bone tissue, tonsil tissue, or brain tissue.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each tissue section bonds to the hydrogel substrate via a first bond having a first adhesion strength, and wherein the tissue section bonds to the solid support via a second bond having a second adhesion strength, wherein the second adhesion strength is greater than the first adhesion strength.
9 . The method of claim 1 , binding a tissue section to a hydrogel substrate comprises:
contacting a vessel comprising a tissue section with the hydrogel substrate, wherein said vessel comprises water and wherein said tissue section is at or on the surface of the water; and
removing the hydrogel substrate from the vessel, wherein the tissue section is immobilized to the hydrogel substrate.
10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising removing the hydrogel substrate from the sample-carrier construct.
11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the hydrogel substrate comprises agarose, amylose, or amylopectin.
12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the hydrogel substrate comprises about 2% to about 5% agarose.
13 . The method of claim 1 wherein the hydrogel substrate comprises 3% to 20% acrylamide.
14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the hydrogel substrate comprises poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA); 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA); polyethylene glycol methacrylate (PEGMA); a copolymer of methacrylic acid (MAA) and polyethylene glycol methacrylate (PEGMA); or poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPAM).
15 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, prior to (ii) cutting a portion of the sample-carrier construct and removing the portion.
16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the solid support is glass.
17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the solid support comprises collagen type I, fibronectin, laminin, or poly-lysine.
18 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the solid support comprises a plurality of amine reactive groups.
19 . The method of claim 16 , wherein said solid support comprises one or more fiducial markers.
20 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the solid support comprises 10 discrete tissue samples.
21 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each discrete tissue sample does not contact other tissue sections.
22 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each discrete tissue sample is separated from each other by at least 1 mm.
23 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each discrete tissue sample is separated from each other by about 1 mm to about 10 mm.