Compresstome™ Microtome, State of the Art Tissue Slicer
- * The best machine for preparing acute live brain slice. Doubles tissue slice viability. You will have live neurons instead of cell debris in the surface of the slices.
- * The best machine for sectioning senior adult brain slices. Great for patch-clamping which is very challenging for other machines.
- * The best machine for preparing brain slices for organotypic tissue culture. Significantly better than tissue chopper and vibrating microtomes.
- * The best machine for sectioning slices for free-floating immunohistochemistry. No ice crystal formation, no chatter marks and fast cutting speed.
- * The best machine for preparing precision cut lung slices. Including guinea pig lung slices, which is difficult for other microtomes.
- * Greatly increase the data quality, repeatability and research productivity.
Compresstome™ is a new family of microtomes developed from our company's patented technique. The Compresstome™ helps you cut much healthier slices with minimal effort and better image quality.
In the Compresstome™ microtome, the tissue is stabilized with agarose within a specimen tube. The outlet of the specimen tube is a little bit smaller which forms a compression lip. When the tissue/agarose block is pushed outward, they are compressed slightly by the compression lip. The slices are cut just at the outlet of the specimen tube by a vibrating blade. There are two unique features with the Compresstome™, Specimen immobilization and tissue distortion prevention,, that enables the increase in brain slice viability. Compresstome™ works even better in preparing the most challenging preparations.
Specimen Stabilization
In a typical vibrating microtome, tissue can wobble and move around during sectioning. The slice surface is thus rougher. This limits the ability to obtain adequately thin and smooth slices in the vibrating microtome. In the Compresstome™, tissue specimen is embedded with agarose and held in place by the compression lip of the specimen syringe. Tissue specimen can not move in any direction. This specimen stabilization greatly improves the slice quality and cutting efficiency.
Tissue Distortion Prevention
Fresh brain is very soft and very delicate. A major factor that kills neurons during live brain sectioning is the tissue distortion or deformation by the blade. This is inevitable in the traditional methods of sectioning. The distortion is more evident in adult brain which contains rich myelinated fibers. In the Compresstome™, tissue is embedded with agarose and pre-compressed before cutting. The inwardly pre-stressed force counter acts the cutting force of the blade, preventing tissue deformation by the blade and reduces tissue damage.
These significant differences of the Compresstome™ enables: more live neurons in the top surface of the slices; clean, flat and smooth cut surfaces with no chatter marks; consistent slice thickness; and an order of magnitude faster sectioning speed.
Fast Sectioning Speed
The sectioning speed of the Compresstome is ten times faster than the vibrating microtomes. Although in the brain slice electrophysiology, only a few slices are needed, the sectioning speed is not that crucial. However, in preparing organotypic tissue slice culture and immunohistochemistry experiments, large quantity of slices are required. Fast sectioning speed is a big advantage or critical in case of tissue culture.
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Compresstome
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Typical vibrating microtomes
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Tissue movement during cutting
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No
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yes
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Tissue squashing by cutting blade
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No
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Yes
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Live/Dead cell ratio
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Average 6
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1.5 to 3
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Top cell layer
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Alive
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Cell debris
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Aged braine slice
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Good
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Poor
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Organotypic brain slice culture
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Good
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Poor
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Lung slice (including guinea pig)
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Good
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Poor
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Mininmum slice thickness
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10 micron, 15 micron routine
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15 micron, 30 micron routine
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Chatter marks
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None/very few
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Obvious
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Cutting speed
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3-6 seconds
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~30 seconds/slices
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Thickness variation
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~5%
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~20%
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Slice surface
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Clean, smooth & flat
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Rough & cell debris
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The Compresstome™ family
The Compresstome™ family includes five members; the VF-200,
VF-300,
VF-700, VF-800 and
VF-900.
The Compresstome™ VF-200 and VF-300 are designed for electrophysiology
experiments. The VF-200 is a semi-automatic microtome with manual slice
thickness adjustment through a micrometer. It is economical and very effective
for cutting small quantity of slices. The VF-300 is a fully automatic model.
It is useful for sectioning large quantity of tissue slices.
The VF-700, VF-800 and VF-900 are all horizontal version of the Compresstome™. They are great for fixed brain tissue sectioning.
The VF-700 is designed for cutting fixed tissue slice for histology experiments.
The VF-700 is a delux model that allows you to eliminate all chatter marks
from slice surfaces, cutting mirror-like smooth slices.
The VF-800 is designed for sectioning medium size fixed brains from cats, pigs, and monkeys.
The VF-900 is designed for sectioning large size fixed brain such as homo sapiens.
Testimonial on the Compresstome™
Jose F. Perez-Zoghbi, PhD, Assistant professor, Dept. Cell Physiology & Molecular Biophysics, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
We use the Compresstome VF-300 to prepare 'living' lung slices from rodents to investigate the regulatory mechanisms of the contraction of intrapulmonary airways and arterioles. We used a vibratory microtome from a different company during our previous studies with lung slices. However, we decide to change to use the Compresstome because we found this slicer produces a less apparent damage to the cells of the airways and arterioles as well as to the delicate alveolar parenchyma. Using the Compresstome we are able to obtain more reproducible and successful experiments.
To prepare lung slices, the lungs are pre-inflated with agarose and the pulmonary blood vessels are filled with gelatin. After solidification of the agarose and gelatin we use the Comprestome to prepare 130?m thick slices. We use confocal and phase contrast video microscopy to measure simultaneously the agonists-induced contraction of airways and arterioles and the changes in intracellular Ca2+ concentration in their associated smooth muscle cells. Images and movies showing the response of airways and arterioles to agonist stimulation in lung slices are available in our web site (http://www.ttuhsc.edu/som/physiology/faculty/perez/home/perezlab.aspx).
(Image of a 130 micron rat lung slice showing an intrapulmonary airway
and an arteriole.)
"I was lucky to be the first one to try the VF200 made by Precisionary Instruments Inc. At first, I was skeptical, but the results were astonishing. I have been using a Vibroslice™ (Campden Instruments, Leicester , UK ) for over 13 years, and I would never get so many living cells in one field as with the VF-200. This is also true and especially impressive for tissue of older animals. The oldest rats we used were 31 days of age. The cell quality was very good and the field was very clean. The VF-200 has greatly improved our productivity. Many thanks to Precisionary Instruments Inc. for creating such a wonderful instrument, and for their significant contribution to the neuro-science field."
Our Contribution to Research
Founded in 2004 by scientists, Precisionary Instruments Inc. is dedicated to promoting technology improvement in bio-medical researches. The company has developed a series of state-of-the-art Compresstome™ microtomes to cut slices from fresh and fixed tissue for different research purposes. Please direction any questions about the company or inquiries of the products to info@precisionary.com.