Improved MicroSlicers™ by Dosaka
for Sectioning Fresh or Fixed Tissue

The Dosaka MicroSlicers™ allow to cut sections of soft tissues like brain, liver or similar difficult-to-section material. The MicroSlicers™ are well known for their quality and superior performance, enjoying an excellent reputation in the neuroscience research community.

The Dosaka MicroSlicers™ have a unique design for the vibratory motion of the cutting blade. To generate the shuttling blade motion in the MicroSlicer™, a smooth motorized system was adopted that is less prone to vertical vibration, compared to the traditional electromagnetic vibrating system. Traditional electromagnetic system is limited to a set constant vibration frequency of the blade. In contrast, the MicroSlicer™ allows adjustment to the shuttling frequency of the blade depending on the properties of the specimen. Thus, the MicroSlicer™ can cut thinner sections more easily and efficiently.

Objective of the MicroSlicer™

The Dosaka MicroSlicer™ is an instrument designed to cut sections of animal or plant tissues, fresh or fixed, without freezing them.

Various fields of neuroscience, histochemistry and cytochemistry require incubation of tissues in different incubation media. Large tissue blocks and thick sections often end up with non-specific deposits of reaction products and areas of no reaction in the center of the specimen. This is due to poor penetration of the reaction media into the tissue. For this reason, thinner sections are preferred to perform histochemical and cytochemical reactions.

The simplest method to cut tissue sections is to cut frozen in a cryostat. However, it is well known that both cellular fine structure and enzyme activity suffer greatly from freezing and thawing. Nonfrozen sections are therefore preferred for histochemistry and cytochemistry. In recent years, rat or cat fresh brain sections (200 to 500 micrometers in thickness) have been used in neurophysiological and pharmacological research. In addition, tissue sections are used in a variety of studies in the field of botany.

Traditionally, non-frozen tissue sections have been cut by hand with a razor blade or by using microtomes or tissue choppers. However, these methods have various drawbacks, such as the irregular thickness of tissue sections, difficulty of obtaining thin sections, or extremely slow sectioning speed. The MicroSlicers™ are instruments for preparing non-frozen tissue sections easily and efficiently.

There is a choice of two Dosaka MicroSlicer™ models:

• MicroSlicer™ DTK-1000N - the basic model for manual operation
  
  
• MicroSlicer™  Zero 1N - reduced Z-axis movement of the head for superior cutting quality, manual operation but includes motorized specimen movement and features the useful retraction mode
  

The Dosaka MicroSlicer™ vibratory tissue slicer systems feature a fixed cutting amplitude and an adjustable frequency. Even the entry level model, DTK-1000N, comes equipped with an auto-reverse mechanism and detachable bath. In addition to that, the Zero 1N has a stepping motor for vertical movement of the specimen, as well as a retraction function. The Zero 1N model features the MicroSlicer™ Zero-Z technology with a redesigned cutting head for dramatically reduced Z-axis vibration. The layout of the switches on both sides of the tray allows for easy operation and reduced spillage on the controls.

Applications: Neuroscience Research, Physiology, Immunocytochemistry, Pharmacology, Pathology, Fluorescent Antibody Study, Histology, Cytology