A cell block preparation machine

Abstract

The application provides a cell block preparation machine which is composed of a control system, a centrifugal assembly, a heating assembly and a refrigeration assembly. The cell block preparation machine is used with a cell block preparation tube to efficiently and quickly complete the preparation of a cell block by successively heating and dissolving a matrix in the heating assembly, centrifugally enriching cells in the centrifugal assembly and cooling and solidifying in the refrigeration assembly. The cell block preparation is intelligentized, standardized and of high quality, and has important social and economic values.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of medical equipment, in particular to a cell block preparation machine and method. BACKGROUND

[0002] Cell pathology diagnoses various diseases and assesses health conditions by analyzing cells or small cell clusters.

[0003] The most commonly used technique in cell pathology is cell smear. Cell smear is to spread cells or small cell clusters on a glass slide, to stain with diagnostic reagents, and to observe cell morphology under a microscope to make a diagnosis of various diseases or assess health conditions. Cell smear method has obvious limitations, mainly in that: cell smear cannot be duplicated, once the cell smear is stained with a diagnostic reagent, it is difficult to simultaneously perform additional staining and detection; it is difficult to perform immunohistochemical and molecular pathological detection; blood, protein precipitate, mucus interference and cell accumulation make the morphology and structure of cells unclear; cells are distorted and deformed during the process of making a film and are difficult to interpret; and cannot be stored for a long time.

[0004] Cell block is the bridge to the future of cell pathology. After dehydration, paraffin embedding and other procedures, cell block is made into cell wax block, and cell wax block is cut into cell section, and after further staining, the cell is detected to diagnose diseases. Compared with cell smear, cell section has many advantages: cells are not deformed, structure is clear, easy to observe and interpret; it can clearly observe the arrangement of cells like biopsy tissue section, so it is also called micro-biopsy; cell block can cut out multiple cell or small cell cluster sections for analysis; easy to perform special staining, immunocytochemical staining and molecular pathological detection; can be stored for a long time for further diagnosis and research.

[0005] The previous application "a method for making cell block" (application number: 201510441787.X) establishes a new cell block preparation method: (1) a new type of cell block preparation tube is used, both ends are open, with a top cover and a bottom cover, the tube is preloaded with a matrix material, which solidifies into a solid state at room temperature and melts into a liquid state when heated to 60°C-100°C; (2) the preparation method is to mix the matrix in the cell block preparation tube with the cell mixture after heating and melting, then separate and enrich the cells on a plane at the bottom of the cell block preparation tube by centrifugation, and cut off the end of the matrix containing the cells to prepare a cell block after cooling and solidification.

[0006] In order to make the above-mentioned patent "a method for making cell block" convenient to implement, a new cell block preparation machine needs to be invented to realize the functions of centrifugation, heating and refrigeration of the above steps. SUMMARY

[0007] A cell block preparation machine, characterized in that it comprises a control system, a centrifugal assembly, a heating assembly and a refrigeration assembly; the control system controls the centrifugal assembly, the heating assembly and the refrigeration assembly respectively through programs; a cell block preparation tube is heated and dissolved in the heating assembly, centrifuged and enriched in the centrifugal assembly, and cooled and solidified in the refrigeration assembly to prepare a cell block; the control system is located at the front, the centrifugal assembly is located at the left of the body, the refrigeration assembly is located at the upper right, and the heating assembly is located at the lower right; the centrifugal assembly comprises a driving motor, a rotor and an adapter, the driving motor drives the rotor to rotate and centrifuge the adapter; the heating assembly comprises a heating device and a heating module, and the cell block preparation tube is installed in the heating module for heating; the refrigeration assembly comprises a refrigeration device and a refrigeration module, and the cell block preparation tube is installed in the refrigeration module for cooling; the refrigeration device comprises a semiconductor refrigeration sheet and a radiator; and the heating module and the refrigeration module are respectively provided with heating holes and refrigeration holes, and the hole diameters are 10-20 mm.

[0008] The cell block preparation machine has the advantages that (1) the cell block preparation machine is used to conveniently prepare cytological specimens and tiny tissue fragments obtained by surgical methods into cell blocks through heating, centrifugation and refrigeration in one machine.

[0009] (2) The programmed, standardized and quality-controlled cell block preparation in the clinic is realized.

[0010] (3) The cell block preparation tube and the matrix material are used, and a small amount of cells and tissue debris can be efficiently enriched on one plane of the matrix through the centrifugal principle, so that the tiny cells are prepared into cell blocks.

[0011] (4) Through the centrifugal separation of the matrix material, the diseased cells and cell groups (large cells and high nuclear plasma ratio cells) are distributed in the lowermost layer, are cut down first to prepare cell slices when the slices are prepared, and the positive diagnosis rate is improved.

[0012] (5) The slices prepared by the method have a large observable cell distribution area and high cell abundance, and the diagnosis quality is improved.

[0013] (6) The cell block prepared by the method has a regular shape and a determined cell distribution position, and the prepared cell slices have high quality and are easy to diagnose. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0014] FIG. 1 is a structural schematic view of a cell block preparation machine according to the present application.

[0015] FIG. 2 is a structural schematic view of a centrifugal assembly according to the present application.

[0016] FIG. 3 is a structural schematic view of a heating assembly according to the present application.

[0017] FIG. 4 is a structural schematic view of a refrigeration assembly according to the present application.

[0018] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the cell block preparation tube of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] For the purpose of the present application, technical solutions and points, it should be noted that the terms "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "inner", "outer" indicate the orientation or positional relationship based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, only for the convenience of description and simplification of description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element must have a particular orientation, in addition, in the description of the present application, the terms "mounting", "connection" should be understood broadly.

[0020] The technical solutions of the present application will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the drawings and examples of the present application.

[0021] As shown in Figure 1, a cell block preparation machine, comprising a front control system 1, a centrifugal assembly 2 in the upper left body, a heating assembly 3 in the lower right, a refrigeration assembly 4 in the upper right.

[0022] As shown in Figure 2, the centrifugal assembly comprises a drive motor 21 in the middle, a rotor 22 and four sets of adapters 23 around.

[0023] As shown in Figure 3, the heating assembly comprises a heating module 31 in the upper, a heating hole 311 and a heating device 32 in the lower.

[0024] As shown in Figure 4, the refrigeration assembly comprises a refrigeration module 41 in the upper, a refrigeration hole 411, a refrigeration device 42 in the middle and a heat sink 43 in the lower.

[0025] As shown in Figure 5, the cell block preparation tube comprises its body 5, the top cover 51 in the upper, the matrix 52 in the middle and lower, and the bottom cover 53 in the lower.

[0026] (1) Turn on the power switch of the cell block preparation machine, and call out the "cell block preparation program" on the control interface of the control system 1, and set the program temperature of the heating device 32 to "85°C", and set the program of the refrigeration device 42 to "4°C".

[0027] (2) Matrix melting: place the cell block preparation tube 5 in the heating hole 411 on the heating module 41, heat at 85°C for more than 15 minutes, so that the matrix 52 is completely liquefied.

[0028] (3) Cell collection: Clinically collected cytological specimens or micro-tissues are placed in the adapter 23 of the centrifuge assembly 2. Then, the centrifuge assembly 2 is set to centrifuge at 1800 rpm (about 550g) for 5 minutes on the control interface of the control system 1 to precipitate the cells and remove the supernatant.

[0029] (4) Red blood cell lysis: Add more than 5 times the volume of red blood cell lysis working solution to the cell pellet, mix gently and let stand for 5 minutes, then place it in the adapter 23 of centrifuge assembly 2 and centrifuge at 1800 rpm (about 550g) for 5 minutes to precipitate the cells. Aspirate the red supernatant. This step is used when the sample contains a large number of red blood cells and it is necessary to remove the red blood cells.

[0030] (5) Cell fixation: Add cell fixation solution at least 5 times the cell volume to the precipitated cells and pre-fix for 10 minutes.

[0031] (6) Add sample and mix: Open the top cap 51 of the cell block preparation tube 5, add the pre-fixed cell fixation suspension to the cell block preparation tube 5, and use a pipette to repeatedly aspirate to make the cell suspension and matrix fully mixed.

[0032] (7) Centrifugation: Unscrew the top cap 51 of the cell block preparation tube 5, and while it is still hot, immediately place the cell block preparation tube 5 into the adapter 23. Set the control system 1 to control the centrifugation module 2 to perform centrifugation using the "cell block preparation program". The principle is that the melting point of the matrix is ​​about 80°C and the freezing point is about 40°C. The matrix is ​​heated to 85°C to liquefy and then mixed with the cell mixture (room temperature). The temperature is about 60°C. At room temperature, the matrix-cell mixture will naturally decrease from 60°C to the freezing point of 40°C in more than 20 minutes. Therefore, the cells can be separated and enriched by centrifugation using a regular centrifugation module within 20 minutes.

[0033] (8) Solidification of matrix: Place the cell block preparation tube 5 into the cooling hole 411 of the cooling module 41 and cool at 4°C for more than 10 minutes.

[0034] (9) Unscrew the top cap 51 and bottom cap 53 of the cell block preparation tube 5, use a cotton swab to push the cell-containing matrix 52 end out of the centrifuge tube, cut off the 3mm thick cell end with a blade, and put the bottom layer of cells downward into the embedding box.

Claims

1. A cell block preparation machine, characterized in that... It includes a control system, a centrifugation assembly, a heating assembly, and a cooling assembly; the control system controls the centrifugation assembly, the heating assembly, and the cooling assembly respectively through a program; the cell block preparation tube is heated and dissolved in the heating assembly, centrifuged and enriched in the centrifugation assembly, and cooled and solidified in the cooling assembly to prepare cell blocks; the control system is located at the front, the centrifugation assembly is located on the left side of the main body, the cooling assembly is located on the upper right, and the heating assembly is located on the lower right. The centrifugal assembly is characterized by including a drive motor, a rotor, and an adapter, wherein the drive motor drives the rotor to rotate the adapter for centrifugal centrifugation. The heating assembly is characterized by including a heating device and a heating module, wherein the cell block preparation tube is installed in the heating module for heating; The refrigeration assembly is characterized by including a refrigeration device and a refrigeration module, wherein the cell block preparation tube is installed in the refrigeration module for cooling.

2. A cell block preparation machine according to claim 1, characterized in that, The refrigeration device includes a semiconductor cooling chip and a heat sink.

3. A cell block preparation machine according to claim 1, characterized in that, The heating module and the cooling module are respectively equipped with heating holes and cooling holes, with a hole diameter of 10-20mm.

Images