Laser-capture microdissection

Virginia Espina, Julia D. Wulfkuhle, Valerie S. Calvert, Amy VanMeter, Weidong Zhou, George Coukos, David H. Geho, Emanuel F. Petricoin, Lance A. Liotta*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

567 Scopus citations

Abstract

Deciphering the cellular and molecular interactions that drive disease within the tissue microenvironment holds promise for discovering drug targets of the future. In order to recapitulate the in vivo interactions thorough molecular analysis, one must be able to analyze specific cell populations within the context of their heterogeneous tissue microecology. Laser-capture microdissection (LCM) is a method to procure subpopulations of tissue cells under direct microscopic visualization. LCM technology can harvest the cells of interest directly or can isolate specific cells by cutting away unwanted cells to give histologically pure enriched cell populations. A variety of downstream applications exist: DNA genotyping and loss-of-heterozygosity (LOH) analysis, RNA transcript profiling, cDNA library generation, proteomics discovery and signal-pathway profiling. Herein we provide a thorough description of LCM techniques, with an emphasis on tips and troubleshooting advice derived from LCM users. The total time required to carry out this protocol is typically 1-1.5 h.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)586-603
Number of pages18
JournalNature Protocols
Volume1
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2006
Externally publishedYes

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