Figure 3

TMA preparation procedure. The plastic board (2) was placed under a topless and bottomless transparent box (1) and melting paraffin was poured into the box to cover the whole area (3) and cooled at room temperature till the plastic board could be separated from the transparent box (4). A hole was made by a guiding needle (5) on the block after the paraffin was softened at 60°C for 5 min. Tissue rods (6) were planted into the hole on the softened block one by one orderly until all the desired tissue rods were planted (7). After aggregating and cooling down, the TMA (8) was separated from the transparent box.