Theoretical analysis and experimental study of Ultrasonic Vibration Microdissection technology

Molecular techniques are transforming our understanding of cellular function and the origin of disease. However, accurate molecular analysis methods will be limited if the input DNA, RNA, or protein is not derived from pure population of cells or is contaminated by the wrong cells. So a novel Ultrasonic Vibration Microdissection (UVM) method was proposed to procure pure population of targeted cells from tissue sections for subsequent analysis. In the last two years, an ultrasonic vibration microdissection system for molecular analysis of tissue had been developed in our laboratory. In this system, a multilayer piezoelectric actuator is used to actuate a sharp microneedle vibrating with high frequency and low amplitude to cut the tissue. In this paper, we focus on the ultrasonic vibration microdissection principle and various parameters on the impact of cutting effect. It is helpful for setting the system parameters, thus as vibration amplitude and frequency, properly to get the ideal cutting effect. Finally, contrast experiments were carried out, and the experiment results show agreement with the analyses results. It indicates that the embedded tissue can be quickly and precisely cut with the ultrasonic vibration microdissection method under the proper parameters.