User:Yamuna Paryatan/sandbox

Tissue printing is the art and science of visualising cellular material and information that are transferred to a receptive surface when the cut surfaces of sections of tissues or organs are pressed against such a surface. Using this technique, the cell-specific location of various macromolecules such as proteins, enzymes, nucleic acids and soluble metaboites can be determined by exposing the print to a chemical reagent that allows the molecule of interest to be visualized, for example by the use of histochemical or immunochemical methods.

Different species, or tissues from a single species can be quickly screened for the presence of a particular macromolecule by tissue printing. The technique can also be used to follow changes in the tissue distribution of a particular protein or enzyme throughout the course of an organism's development. In tissue printing, cell contents from a surface of the cut section of a tissue are transferred to an adsorptive surface, commonly a nitrocellulose membrane. Because of the considerable cost of nitrocellulose, economical alternatives for less rigourous studies can be blotting paper and artists' hot-press watercolour paper.