Laser Capture Microdissection for Gene Expression Analysis

Laser capture microdissection (LCM) is an excellent and perhaps the only platform to isolate homogeneous cell populations from specific microscopic regions of heterogeneous tissue section, under direct microscopic visualization. The basic operations of the LCM system are based on (a) microscopic visualization of phenotypically identified cells of interest, (b) selective adherence of cells to a melting thermolabile film/membrane using a low-energy infrared laser (IR system) or photovolatization of cells within a selected region (UV system), (c) capturing or catapulting of structurally intact cells from a stained tissue section. RNA/DNA or protein can be extracted from the cell or tissue fragments for downstream applications to quantitatively study gene expression. This method can be applied to many downstream analyses including but not limited to quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), microarray, DNA genotyping, RNA transcript profiling, generation of cDNA library, mass spectrometry analysis, and proteomic discovery.
Source: Springer protocols feed by Cancer Research - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: news