Muscle Biopsies
A muscle biopsy is a procedure that involves the removal of muscle tissue. The sample of tissue can then be examined and tested chemically in a laboratory.
Please be aware that TREAT-NMD does not endorse the videos demonstrating this surgical procedure.
Muscle Biopsy - National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry (NCNP)
Although high expertise is necessary for muscle pathology, only a limited number of experts exist in the world. Especially, using appropriate techniques for muscle biopsy and sample fixation is critical to obtain practically readable muscle pathology slides without significant artifacts. For this reason, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry (NCNP), Japan and Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Thailand, have produced teaching videos for those procedures.
There are three videos:
- Surgical procedure of muscle biopsy
- Fixation techniques of biopsied muscle
- Transportation of frozen muscle
Each has three language versions: English, Japanese and Thai. NCNP and Siriraj Hospital hold the copyright. The videos can be used for medical and academic purposes for free under the condition that any part of the videos is NOT modified and the source of the videos is clearly indicated.
The videos can be viewed at:
https://www.ncnp.go.jp/nin/guide/r1/video_e.html
For your information, our videos were recently introduced as "Neurology New"
in World Federation of Neurology website:
https://www.wfneurology.org/2018-04-10-ncnp-siriraj-hospital
Muscle Biopsy - AGADA BioSciences
Muscle biopsies are an invasive procedure, and can be troubling for patients, particularly for children. However, it can be important to include muscle biopsies in clinical trials to obtain the most possible information about how a drug is working (mechanism of action). If muscle biopsies are needed, it is critical that the samples be processed, stored, and analyzed using the best methods possible. If a patient's biopsy is unable to be used due to poor processing or handling of the tissue, then this is a great concern for the family, their physicians, and the researchers hoping to use the biopsy.
AGADA BioSciences has been working to optimize and standardize the processing, storage and testing of muscle biopsies from patients in clinical trials, so that integrity of the sample can be maintained, enabling robust data collection from each sample. A first step in this process is the post-surgical preparation and storage of the muscle biopsy - what is done immediately after the muscle biopsy is taken from the patient? In this video, AGADA BioSciences staff show the approaches used in a clinical trial of Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients. Key aspects of this are flash freezing with a minimum of embedding media (the embedding media can interfere with accuracy of tests done on the biopsy), flash freezing in isopentane cooled in liquid nitrogen (to prevent ice crystal artifact), and storage in hydrated small airtight containers. This approach has led to excellent preservation of the samples, and success of protein, mRNA, and histological assays on the samples.