Advantages of the Compresstome®

  • Reduced tissue damage:  Tissue stabilization preserves cellular level structural integrity and details.
  • Smooth sections:  tissue stabilization = No artifacts 
  • Easy to maintain:  Auto-Zero-Z means Zero-Z with no calibration needed.
  • Easy to learn:  Many labs get great smooth slices on first or second try with the Compresstome.

Problems with traditional vibrating microtomes

  • Tissue damage:  Tissue tearing, folding, and shredding would compromise structural integrity.
  • Slice thickness variability: Inconsistent thickness can affect the repeatability .
  • Maintenance and calibration: Need time consuming maintenance requiring specialized knowledge or could lead to degrading performance.
  • Steep learning curve: Requires A LOT of practice to perfect, particularly for users who are new to IHC and tissue preparation.

Making better tissue slices for plant research

Plant Research

Preparation for plant slicing using a Compresstome®

The old fashioned method of free-hand sectioning of plant tissue has been performed for a very long time. Free-hand sectioning is done with razor blades, but this is difficult to apply to plant samples that are hard to hold or manipulate. Vibratomes or vibrating microtomes and rotary microtomes can be an excellent tool for cutting plant tissue sections, and these machines help generate high quality thin sections. Certain plant parts are also made of harder materials, such as seeds or seed pods. Rotary microtomes are capable of cutting through much harder specimens and can be used to section those plant components.

Our Compresstome® tissue slicers and rotary microtomes have been developed and used extensively in plant research. In fact, there is even a simple published guide to use for cutting plant slices. Download this guide below:

Download Plant Sectioning Guide

Recommended Model/s

Not sure which model is right for your needs?

Real lab examples

section polymers

A simple guide to the use of Compresstome® in plant research

In this book chapter publication by Drs. Mohamed M. Mira, Edward C. Yeung, and Claudio Stasolla, the team describes a simple guide to use for cutting plant slices with the Compresstome® for research. They are able to cut thin fresh plant tissue slices, which are then placed onto a glass slide for further experimental treatments. They are able to then visualize proteins as GFP signals in samples like corn roots.

References

Mira MM, Hill RD, Stasolla C. Phytoglobins Improve Hypoxic Root Growth by Alleviating Apical Meristem Cell Death. Plant Physiol. 2016 Nov;172(3):2044-2056. Epub 2016 Oct 4. PMID: 27702845; PMCID: PMC5100795. Download PDF

Mira MM et al., “A Simple Guide to the Use of Compresstome in Plant Research”: Download PDF

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