What is it about?
A scanning acoustic microscope (SAM) calculates the speed of sound (SOS) through tissues and plots the data on the screen to form images. Hard tissues result in greater SOS; based on these differences in tissue properties regarding SOS, SAM can provide data on tissue elasticity. The present study evaluated whether tissue modifications, such as formalin fixation, periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) reactions and protein degradation, changed the acoustic properties of the tissues and whether SAM could be a useful tool for following chemical changes in sections.
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Why is it important?
Usually chemical changes on sections are difficult to detect by histology. However, SAM can do it. SAM calculate speed-of-sound (SOS) through tissues which increases faster as they become stiffer. Formalin fixation hardens tissues, protein breakdown makes tissue looser and glycosylation of proteins burdens tissues. SAM can evaluate these chemical modifications by SOS through tissues. Moreover, SAM can compare the degree chemical modification by alteration of SOS values.
Perspectives
SAM facilitates the visualisation of the time course or distribution of chemical modifications in tissue sections, thus aiding their comparison among tissues. SAM may be an effective tool for studying changes such as protein cross-linkage, tissue repair and ageing. Quality of acoustic microscopy has developed recently. Cost of this device is not so expensive compared with genetic equipment.
Dr Katsutoshi Miura
Hamamatsu University School of Medicine
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Microscopic observation of chemical modification in sections using scanning acoustic microscopy, Pathology International, March 2015, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/pin.12288.
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