JPH04177143A - Preparation of thin slice of microscope sample - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable simple preparation without any skill by slicing a solid specimen after sticking a long and narrow adhesive transparent or semitransparent thin tape on the cutting plane of the solid specimen. CONSTITUTION:A tape 2 is stuck on a specimen block 1 so that a gap may not be produced as shown in the figures A, B, sliced by a blade as shown in the figure C and therewith sliced pieces 1 stuck on the tape 2 are obtained. As a result, the sliced pieces 1 are protected from being broken and wound round without excessive deformation. When the sliced pieces 1 of a specimen are moved as shown in the figure D, the tape 2 is lightly pulled up by a tension roller 3 to protect the sliced pieces 1 from being rubbed by the upper face of the blade 4. The sliced pieces 1 widened as soon as they are sliced are obtained to sharply promote work efficiency and operation is simple without requiring any skill.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Field of Use] When understanding the internal structure of an object using a microscope in medicine, biology, etc., it is possible to visualize the internal structure of an object by slicing it into thin slices and allowing light to pass through when the internal structure of an object cannot be seen from the outside. The operation is performed.

The present invention relates to a method for preparing thin sections of a three-dimensional sample, which makes it possible to easily and quickly perform thin sectioning of a sample and subsequent operations associated with preparing a microscopic specimen.

[Conventional technology] Traditionally, the thin-slicing method for preparing specimens involves cutting the sample into thin slices with a knife, then stretching each slice in water, or spreading it out with a brush, etc., and pasting it on a glass slide. It has undergone treatments such as dyeing. In addition, operations such as staining individual floating sections, such as sections embedded in celleucine, and pasting them onto glass slides are also performed. In any case, the slices cut with a blade must be smoothed out, spread out flat, and arranged on a glass slide. Recently, when a hard sample such as bone is cut with a diamond cutter after being stained with a thin film on the surface, a cover glass is attached before cutting to support the cut piece. It is known that the specimen is made into a microscopic specimen as it is after cutting, but this is not practical because it takes about 15 minutes for the adhesion to become hard enough to cut, so the specimen must be sliced continuously. It is not possible.

The conventional sample preparation methods described above have the following problems.

(1) Thin slicing requires skill.

(2) When slicing a sample, the section may become wrinkled or coiled into a cylindrical shape.

(3) It takes time and effort to flatten the section.

(4) Thin sections may be lost during subsequent operations due to frozen specimens that do not have supporting materials such as resin around them, or specimens that are poorly fixed and embedded.

(5) When a number of sections are floated in water to smooth out wrinkles, or when pasted on a glass slide, the order may be disrupted.

(6) Due to manual variations, many sections cannot be uniformly reacted or stained under the same conditions.

(7) In many cases, when attaching sections to a glass slide, it is difficult to arrange them at specific intervals without tilting them.

(8) Due to the problems (6) and (7) above, it is difficult to perform automatic sample analysis, automatic computer input, image processing, three-dimensional reconstruction, etc. In particular, recent computer image processing technology It is now possible to process data and to express three-dimensional objects at various angles from a large number of consecutive sections, and there is a need to create specimens that are free from distortion and easy to align.

[Problems to be Solved by @Ming] An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems and to provide a method for obtaining a microscopic specimen that is simple and does not require skill.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The means of the present invention is to apply a transparent or translucent strip of adhesive thin tape to the cut surface of a three-dimensional sample, then slice the sample into thin tapes. The purpose is to affix the adhered sliced sample to a predetermined position together with a thin tape.

[Function] In the conventional thin-slicing method, the thin section scrapes against the top surface of the blade and becomes wrinkled or rolled into a cylindrical shape, but in the present invention, the thin film is attached to the thin-cut surface of the block-shaped sample and then Thin slicing prevents the sections from being excessively deformed and prevents them from tearing or curling.

At this time, when the sample is sliced with a wedge-shaped knife blade, the lower part of the slice is expanded and the upper part is compressed. If the sample is brittle and the section is thick, the section is likely to crack, and if something hard is attached to the surface, the lower part will expand and a fine crack will appear parallel to the tip of the blade. By making the material thinner and inserting an adhesive between them, the force exerted on the sections is released, preventing them from becoming cracked and wrinkled.

[Example] In the figure, 1 is a block-shaped sample, 2 is a rolled tape, and 3 is a block-shaped sample.
is a tension roller that lightly pulls up the tape 2 so as not to rub the top surface of the blade 4 of the slicer and to reduce the distortion of the slice. Before slicing, the tape 2 is pasted onto the sample block 1 using a soft roller 5 so that no gaps are created. (Figure A) Next, as the sample is sliced with the blade 4, the thin section 1' is pasted onto the sample block 1. Obtained by sticking to.

Regarding the relationship between the blade 3 and the sample, it does not matter whether either of them is movable. If the specimen is moved and sliced, the thin film should be pulled upwards slightly to prevent the section from being rubbed against the top surface of the blade.

(Figure D) In order to reduce the relative angle formed by the blade surfaces, if the blade hits the sample at an angle rather than perpendicular to the slicing direction, avoid strain between the leading edge of the slicing and the thin film. Twist the thin film slightly.

In the illustrated embodiment, a plurality of continuous sections are pasted at regular intervals on a strip-shaped thin film, and the wound tape 2 is passed through a tension roller 3 and a feed roller 6°7. The tape 2 is pressed onto the sample 1 by the sponge roller 5, and the tape 2 is cut into thin pieces with the blade 4.The tape is then pulled for a certain length in the direction of the arrow on the diagram.Next, a thin section is made again at the position shown in figure E, and the tape 2 is By arranging multiple thin sections 1' in rows at regular intervals, many thin sections can be reacted or stained uniformly under the same conditions, and they can be arranged at specific intervals without being tilted when pasted on a glass slide. However, it is not necessary to adhere the thin sections to the tape continuously.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, wide sections can be obtained at the same time as thin slicing, so that work efficiency is greatly improved.

The operation is simple and specimens can be obtained without requiring any skill.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings are explanatory views showing the order of the method for preparing thin sections of microscopic specimens according to the present invention.

Claims (1)

[Claims] After affixing a transparent or translucent thin tape with adhesive to the cut surface of a three-dimensional sample, the sample is sliced, and the thinly sliced sample attached to the thin tape is affixed to a predetermined position along with the thin tape. A method for preparing a thin section of a microscopic specimen, characterized by: