Simone N L, Bonner R F, Gillespie J W, Emmert-Buck M R, Liotta L A
Laboratory of Pathology, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20895, USA.
Trends Genet. 1998 Jul;14(7):272-6. doi: 10.1016/s0168-9525(98)01489-9.
As the list of expressed human genes expands, a major scientific challenge is to understand the molecular events that drive normal tissue morphogenesis and the evolution of pathological lesions in actual tissue. Laser capture microdissection (LCM) has been developed to provide a reliable method to procure pure populations of cells from specific microscopic regions of tissue sections, in one step, under direct visualization. The cells of interest are transferred to a polymer film that is activated by laser pulses. The exact morphology of the procured cells (with intact DNA, RNA and proteins) is retained and held on the transfer film. With the advent of LCM, cDNA libraries can be developed from pure cells obtained directly from stained tissue, and microhybridization arrays of thousands of genes can now be used to examine gene expression in microdissected human tissue biopsies. The fluctuation of expressed genes or alterations in the cellular DNA that correlate with a particular disease stage can ultimately be compared within or between individual patients. Such a fingerprint of gene-expression patterns can provide crucial clues for etiology and might, ultimately, contribute to diagnostic decisions and therapies tailored to the individual patient. Molecules found to be associated with a defined pathological lesion might serve as imaging ot therapeutic targets.
随着人类表达基因列表的不断扩展，一项重大的科学挑战是了解驱动正常组织形态发生以及实际组织中病理病变演变的分子事件。激光捕获显微切割技术（LCM）已被开发出来，用于提供一种可靠的方法，在直接可视化的情况下，一步从组织切片的特定微观区域获取纯净的细胞群体。感兴趣的细胞被转移到由激光脉冲激活的聚合物膜上。所获取细胞（具有完整的DNA、RNA和蛋白质）的精确形态得以保留并附着在转移膜上。随着LCM的出现，可以从直接从染色组织获得的纯净细胞构建cDNA文库，现在数千个基因的微杂交阵列可用于检测显微切割的人体组织活检中的基因表达。最终，可以在个体患者内部或个体患者之间比较与特定疾病阶段相关的表达基因波动或细胞DNA改变。这种基因表达模式的指纹可为病因学提供关键线索，并最终可能有助于为个体患者量身定制诊断决策和治疗方案。被发现与特定病理病变相关的分子可能成为成像或治疗靶点。
