A Novel Technique for the Generation of Multi-Tissue Blocks employing a Carrier

Paraffin blocks containing several tissues have become a major tool in surgical pathology. As multi-tissue blocks, they usually consist of few rather large samples and as tissue micro-arrays they may contain up to several hundred small sized tissue cores. We developed a novel approach to generate multi-tissue blocks employing a carrier in which tissue samples are inserted. Normal tissues with homogeneous consistency such as liver, spleen and lung appear to be ideal carriers. Carrier tissue size can be freely chosen to accommodate number and size of sample tissues as desried. Since the carrier tissue serves as a scaffold for the inserted tissue, even small sized tissues will stay exactly as placed in the carrier. This makes carrier-based multi-tissue blocks (CBMTBs) an ideal approach when exact orientation of layers is important, for example in normal GIT tissues. The carrier tissue approach can also be used for few large sized sample tissues or to generate classical TMAs with sample cores of