Use of tissue microarrays in veterinary histology

Abstract

Tissue microarrays are platforms for high throughput simultaneous analysis of tens to hundreds of tissue samples. They have been used especially to analyze neoplastic tissues. However, the advantages of this technique could be applied to other research areas such as embryology and histology. This study explores the use of tissue microarrays for morphological and molecular analysis of normal tissues from animals. A total of 82 samples of normal skin from prenatal and postnatal dogs were selected and used to construct the array. A large number of sections from this array block were obtained and routine stain and immunohistochemistry techniques were applied. The results show the effectiveness of the technique for morphological and molecular analysis of a large number of normal tissue samples simultaneously. This allows the standardized assessment of tissues, thus reducing the variability that can occur when testing is performed on individual samples.