Research infrastructure

Histology Facility

Tampere University

Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology

Kauppi Campus

Arvo Ylpön katu 34, 33520 Tampere

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MET core facilities and services

Histology facility (HF) welcomes all researchers from MET to do their tissue histology work using the modern histotechnology equipment and microscopes. Our technicians will help you with technical issues and can do the tissue processing, staining and analysis whenever possible. HF encourages to use digital microscope and whole slide scanning to generate material for your quantitative scientific analyses.

Introduction

Histology Facility (HF) is located in the Arvo building, 3rd floor (E-wing, laboratories and microscope rooms).

After training by our personnel, researchers can do basic laboratory tasks themselves. These include the use of microtomes, cryomicrotomes, tissue processors, microscopes and paraffin embedding. HF staff operate the specific equipment and employ services that we offer, please inquire!

Booking system

All instruments run by users themselves must be booked using Agendo. Please note that histocore personnel have priority in using the equipment.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

All the users of the Histology Facility (HF) services are obligated to acknowledge the facility in publications:

“The authors acknowledge the Tampere Histology Facility (HF) for their service.”

MET Core Facilities and Services

Tissue technologies:

Tissue preparation

HF has three tissue processors for preparing paraffin blocks of solid tissue samples. Both formalin-fixed and Paxgene-fixed tissues can be prepared.

HF has two sliding microtomes for cutting paraffin blocks (section thickness adjustable to 2-6um). For cutting frozen sections Leica and Slee Mev+ cryomicrotomes are available.

Preparation of cultured cells

Users need to make preparations of cultured cells themselves. Cultured cells in suspension can be prepared as sectionable tissue blocks using the thrombin clotting technique. Alternatively, Sakura Cytocentrifuge can be used to prepare cell slides for IHC and IF staining.

Tissue staining

HF has one Kedee stainer for automated hematoxylin-eosin and other routine stains. Slide coverslipping can be done automatically using DAKO coverslipper.

Immunohistochemistry

HF has one Ventana BenchMark and two LabVision autostainers for automated immunohistochemistry. Antigen retrieval can be done with a PT Module, Retriever 2100 or Biocare retriever, or a microwave oven using ph6 or pH9 buffers.

Immunofluorecence

Immunofluorescence staining can be done using LabVision Autostainer or manually using various staining racks available. Of these, JL-Stainer is well-suited for staining of 1-10 IF slides.

Tissue microarrays

Tissue microarray paraffin blocks can be prepared using the 3D Histech TMA Master. The system allows preparation of 0.6-2 mm diameter tissue cores punched and inserted in 1-2 recipient TMA blocks. Sectioning and staining of TMA blocks follows the principles of conventional tissue samples.

Light microscopes

HF has several Olympus BX and Leica DM microscope for slide inspection. Some of these are equipped with digital cameras for snapshot imaging.

Fluorescence microscope

HF has a Zeiss Axioplan microscope for multicolor fluorescence imaging and image capture. The microscope is equipped with ApoTome device, which allows structured illumination principle for generating sharp sections-within-section confocal-type images with all wavelengths. The microscope is operated with AxioVision software.

Laser capture microdissection

Veritas Arcturus Laser Capture system is available for isolation of cell islets or single cells from cell cultures and frozen tissue sections. The dissected material can be studied with molecular biology methods (e.g. PCR-based).

Digital Spatial Profiler GeoMx

Virtual microscopy

Virtual microscopy stands for acquiring and handling digitized versions of microscope glass slides, which are in turn commonly referred to as “virtual slides” or “whole-slide images (WSIs)”. Virtual slides are montage images consisting of up to thousands of high resolution digital micrographs.

Virtual slide scanning systems

HF has two virtual slide scanners, (Hamamatsu and Olympus), which enable scanning of microscope slides in batch. Alternatively, scanning of 2×3 inch macroslides is also possible. Scanning resolutions 0.31 um/pixel (using 10X lens) and 0.16 um/pixel (using 20X lens) can be selected by the user. Scanning with oil immersion lenses is also possible.

Both scanners allow scanning with epifluorescence illumination using blue, green and red emission wavelenghts. The scanning output image format is jpeg2000.

Virtual microscopy scanning system for microwell plates

Microwell plates can be scanned using a scanning system mounted in an inverted microscope (Olympus IX71) or using EVOS FL Auto. These systems allow scanning of cells grown on Petri dishes and 24-96 well microplates. The basic illumination system is phase contrast but fluorescent illumination (with motorized filter changer) is also possible.