Methylmethacrylate Thin Sections are Superior to Thick Ground MMA Sections for Histologic Evaluation of Complex Submillimeter Metallic Medical Devices

Abstract

Hard plastic resin embedding is necessary for histology of tissues containing hard and/or metallic medical devices if the device is to be retained within the section for microscopic assessment. Traditional methylmethacrylate (MMA) embedding and sectioning of tissues containing hard and/or metallic devices requires targeted sectioning of the block with a diamond blade saw followed by careful grinding of the MMA‐embedded specimen with a calibrated grinder. This method provides a tissue section for histology that is approximately 50–60 μm in thickness (MMA thick section). However, the process of creating a MMA thick section is somewhat imprecise and results in considerable sample loss due to requisite attrition during MMA block sectioning and grinding procedures. For submillimeter (<1 mm) and/or similarly small, topographically complex medical devices, this level of relative imprecision, specimen attrition, and loss of cellular detail due to inherent thickness of tissue section can result in unacceptable diagnostic slide quality or even complete loss of a valuable specimen during sectioning/grinding procedures. To circumnavigate these challenges, we utilize MMA hard plastic resin embedding of small metallic medical devices followed by acquisition of thin (3–5 μm) MMA sections using a motorized microtome. Thin MMA sections provide superior cellular detail, greater precision of sectioning, and excellent retention of high quality device‐tissue context when compared with traditional MMA thick plastic sections. Although acquisition of MMA thin sections can be limited by larger device sizes and/or composition, MMA thin sections provide superior histologic quality for permissible specimens.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.