JPH08105826A - Organic tissue treating apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To solve a problem attributed to the handling of a slide glass while reducing the amount of a reagent for treating a biological sample. CONSTITUTION: A sample plate 10 having a plurality of wells 12 formed replacing a plurality of slide glasses. A sample 14 as cut piece of an organic tissue or the like is arranged on the bottom surface of each of the wells 12. A reagent is injected to each sample with a reagent injection nozzle and the unnecessary reagent is sucked with a suction nozzle. The sample plate 10 is made up of a transparent member and can be observed with a microscope. This makes possible the injection of the reagent into the wells 12 alone thereby curtailing the amount of the reagent.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a biological tissue processing apparatus and method, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for processing a sample reagent without using a slide glass.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when preparing a preparation specimen such as a tissue section of an animal or a plant or a specimen of a bacterium, a sample is attached to a slide glass, and the attached sample is dehydrated or stained. Various processing is performed.

Usually, these treatments are carried out by vertically arranging about 20 slide glasses on a metal rack and immersing the entire rack in a glass reagent tank containing various reagents. After the processing for one reagent is completed, the rack is immersed in a reagent tank containing the next reagent, if necessary. Conventionally, a preparation specimen for a desired sample is prepared by treatment with such various reagents.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional method, firstly, there is a problem that a large amount of reagent is required.

In particular, immunostaining and ISH (in situ hybridi
When performing zation, etc., the reagents used for such treatment are very expensive, and therefore there is a demand for treatment with as little reagent as possible in order to meet the economic conditions of the treatment. However, with the conventional method, it is difficult to reduce the amount of the reagent, and the demand cannot be sufficiently satisfied. In addition, since the amount of drainage increases, environmental problems also occur. Secondly, there is a problem that artificial fixing work of the rack is required for each reagent tank, and the work becomes troublesome and complicated when the number of reagents increases.

Thirdly, in the case where a part of the sample needs to be processed with different kinds of reagents in a series of processing steps, it is necessary to remove a part of the slide glasses from the rack, resulting in extremely high work efficiency. There was a problem of being bad.

The amount of the sample to be processed has increased remarkably year by year due to the development of researches and tests in the field of gene diagnosis. Solution was desired.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to reduce the amount of a reagent for treating a biological sample.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the complexity of human work such as setting slide glasses and fixing racks.

The present invention aims to allow treatment of some samples with different reagents.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is a plate having a plurality of wells in which a sample of biological tissue is arranged on the bottom surface, and at least the well bottom wall. A transparent sample plate, a reagent injection means for injecting a reagent into each well, and a reagent aspiration means for aspirating the reagent in each well. Is performed in the well.

The invention according to claim 2 is characterized by further comprising temperature control means for controlling the temperature of the sample plate.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a sample setting step of arranging a sample of biological tissue on the bottom surface of each well of a sample plate having a plurality of wells, and a reagent injection step of injecting a reagent into each well. , A reagent aspirating step of aspirating the reagent in each well, and an observing step of optically observing the sample in the well after the reagent treatment is completed, and the biological tissue is treated by using the sample plate. It is characterized by performing.

[0014]

In the present invention, a plurality of conventional slide glasses are substituted by one sample plate. That is, a plurality of wells are formed in the sample plate, and the sample is attached to the bottom surface of the wells. Focusing on the bottom wall of each well, the bottom wall is for mounting a sample and is transparent, so that the bottom wall itself has a function of a slide glass. However, in the present invention, since a plurality of these wells are formed in one sample plate, firstly, the wells themselves function as a reagent tank, and the amount of the necessary reagent can be minimized. The plate structure is convenient to handle and thirdly, there is no need to worry about mixing between samples because each well is structurally separated. The present invention eliminates the stereotype of using a slide glass in the conventional method and adopts a novel sample plate, whereby the epoch-making effect can be enjoyed as described above.

According to the above construction, after the sample of the biological tissue is placed in each well of the sample plate, the reagent is injected into the well and then the reagent is aspirated. After the necessary reagent treatment is completed, the sample is observed under a microscope while the sample is kept in the well of the reagent plate. When heating or cooling of the sample and reagent is required, the sample plate itself may be heated or cooled.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the overall structure of the biological tissue processing apparatus according to the present invention. Further, FIG. 2 shows a sectional view of the sample plate 10 according to the present invention.

In FIG. 2, a sample plate 10 has a plurality of wells 12 each having a shallow well shape. In this embodiment, the number of wells 12 per sample plate 10 is, for example, 6 × 4. Diameter D of this well 12
Is, for example, 13 mm, and the depth of the well 12 is, for example, 2 mm. The thickness H of the sample plate 10 is, for example, 4 mm, and the overall size of the sample plate 10 is
For example, it is 80 mm × 120 mm.

The sample plate 10 in this embodiment is made of a transparent material such as glass or plastic. Of course, materials that are stable to the reagents are used. In the present embodiment, the entire sample plate 10 is configured to be transparent, but if at least the bottom wall 12A of the well 12 is transparent, it is possible to apply light from below to perform microscopic observation.

A sample 14 as a slice of biological tissue is attached in the well 12. Examples of this biological tissue include plants and animals. The thickness of the sample 14 is, for example, 10 μm.

In processing biological tissue, a sample 14 is set in each well 12 of the sample plate 10, and the sample plate 10 on which the sample is set is set in the biological sample processing apparatus shown in FIG.

In FIG. 1, a plurality of reagent tubes 18 are erected and held on a reagent table 16 which is rotatable, and a desired liquid reagent is put in each reagent tube 18. A reagent injection nozzle 2 is provided by a rail 20 arranged above the device.
2 is movably held in the vertical and horizontal directions, and the reagent in the reagent tube 18 is sucked by the reagent injection nozzle 22 to inject the reagent into a predetermined well 12. In the present embodiment, since each well 12 is separated and independent from each other, it is possible to inject a different reagent into each well. Moreover, since the volume of each well 12 is extremely small, the amount of reagent can be significantly reduced.

After completion of the reagent injection into each well 12 of the sample plate 10, if necessary, the sample plate 1
0 is arranged on the plate heater 24. It should be noted that the transport mechanism for the sample plate 10 is not shown in FIG. In this embodiment, by moving the sample plate 10, all the samples 14 can be moved, and the plate heater 24 is easy to handle.
Heats the sample plate 10 itself placed on it,
It promotes chemical reactions and evaporation of reagents.

If necessary, the reagent suction nozzle unit 2
The excess reagent in each well 12 is suctioned by 6. In the present embodiment, the reagent suction nozzle section 26 is composed of a plurality of suction nozzles 26A arranged in a line, and is capable of simultaneously performing reagent suction on the plurality of wells 12 in the row direction or the column direction. .

After the above-described reagent injection and reagent aspiration for the various reagents are performed, the sample plate 10 is set in the microscope apparatus, and the sample in each well 12 is observed under the microscope. As described above, since the sample plate 10 is composed of the transparent member, it is possible to optically observe the stained biological tissue or the like by applying light from below. The sample plate 10 can be reused but may be disposable.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By using a sample plate in which multiple wells are formed instead of multiple slide glasses, it is possible to significantly reduce the amount of reagents for biological sample processing. In addition, since the sample plate can be targeted for transportation,
Handleability can be improved and the conventional complexity can be eliminated.
In addition, since each well is separated from each other, it is possible to treat each sample with a different reagent. Therefore, the effect is great especially when a large amount of biological samples are treated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing an overall configuration of a biological sample processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the sample plate 10.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 sample plate 12 well 12A well bottom wall 14 sample 22 reagent injection nozzle 26 reagent suction nozzle part

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A sample plate having a plurality of wells in which a sample of biological tissue is placed on the bottom surface, and at least a bottom wall of the wells is transparent, and a reagent plate for injecting a reagent into each well. And a reagent suction means for sucking the reagent in each well, wherein the biological tissue treatment apparatus performs the reagent treatment of the biological tissue in the well. 2. The biological tissue processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising temperature control means for controlling the temperature of the sample plate. 3. A sample setting step of disposing a biological tissue sample on the bottom surface of each well of a sample plate having a plurality of wells, a reagent injection step of injecting a reagent into each well, The method is characterized by including a reagent aspirating step of aspirating a reagent, and an observing step of optically observing the sample in the well after the reagent treatment is completed, and performing biological tissue treatment using a sample plate. Biological tissue treatment method.