Rapid preparation of fresh frozen tissue-engineered bone sections for histological, histomorphological and...

Fresh frozen sections are the best materials to assess tissue-engineered bone using cells/ceramic complexes. However, there are a lot of technical difficulties in obtaining serial sections suitable for microscopic examinations. Kawamoto et al. developed a method for the production of fresh frozen sections using new adhesive tape, and showed that sections were very useful for histological and histochemical studies. However, no study reported that the method was useful for tissue-engineered bone from histochemical and histomorphological points of view. This study aimed to determine the efficacy of fresh frozen sectioning for evaluating tissue-engineered bone. We revealed that fresh frozen sections retained the original morphology of tissue-engineered bone, and their biochemical characteristics. Therefore, rapid preparation of fresh frozen sections using adhesive tape is extremely useful for research of tissue-engineered bone, and serial sections can be assessed from both histomorphological and biochemical point of views. It is expected that this method will become a powerful tool in tissue-engineering of hard tissues.