Defining Disease With Laser Precision: Laser Capture Microdissection in Gastroenterology

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Richard Blatt, Emory University; Shanthi Srinivasan, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2008-08
• Publisher: Elsevier: 12 months
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2013 The American Gastroenterological Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2008.06.054
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Gastroenterology
• ISSN: 0016-5085
• Volume: 135
• Issue: 2
• Start Page: 364
• End Page: 369
• Grant/Funding Information: This work is supported by NIH grants KO8 DK067045 and RO3 DK078552 (S. Srinivasan) and Digestive Diseases Research Center grant (DK064399).
• Keywords: Laser Microdissection; Laser Capture Microdissection
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, General; Engineering, Biomedical

Abstract

Laser capture microdissection (LCM) is an efficient and precise method for obtaining pure cell populations or specific cells of interest from a given tissue sample. LCM has been applied to animal and human gastroenterology research in analyzing the protein, DNA and RNA from all organs of the gastrointestinal system. There are numerous potential applications for this technology in gastroenterology research including malignancies of the esophagus, stomach, colon, biliary tract and liver. This technology can also be used to study gastrointestinal infections, inflammatory bowel disease, pancreatitis, motility, malabsorption and radiation enteropathy. LCM has multiple advantages when compared to conventional methods of microdissection, and this technology can be exploited to identify precursors to disease, diagnostic biomarkers, and therapeutic interventions.