RESUMO
One of the most fascinating aspects of the use of a laser beam in the field of biology has emerged with the development of devices able to perform fine dissections of biological tissues. Laser microdissection can collect phenotypically identical cells from tissue regions laid on a microscope slide in order to make differential molecular analyses on these microdissected cells. Laser microdissection can be used many areas including oncology to specify molecular mechanisms that enable to adapt a treatment related to diagnosis and research in biology, but also forensic science for tissue selection, neurology for post-mortem studies on patients with Alzheimer's disease, for clonality studies from cell cultures and cytogenetics to decipher chromosomal rearrangements. This technology represents the missing link between clinical observations and the intrinsic physiological mechanisms of biological tissues and its major applications will be addressed here.
TITLE: Les applications de la microdissection laser en histologie - Une voie ouverte aux études moléculaires. ABSTRACT: La microdissection laser permet d'isoler des cellules, phénotypiquement identiques, à partir d'une lame de microscope portant un tissu biologique, dans l'optique de réaliser des analyses moléculaires différentielles, spécifiques de ces populations isolées. La technologie s'applique notamment en oncologie, pour préciser des mécanismes moléculaires qui permettent d'adapter un traitement lié au diagnostic et à la recherche en biologie, mais aussi en criminalistique, pour la sélection tissulaire, en neurologie pour des études post-mortem sur des patients atteints de maladie d'Alzheimer, pour des études de clonalité à partir de cultures cellulaires, et en cytogénétique, pour décrypter les réarrangements chromosomiques. C'est le chaînon manquant entre observations cliniques et mécanismes physiologiques intrinsèques des tissus biologiques. Nous aborderons dans cette revue ses applications majeures.
Assuntos
Técnicas Histológicas/métodos , Microdissecção e Captura a Laser , Técnicas de Diagnóstico Molecular/métodos , HumanosRESUMO
Normal biological tissues harbour different populations of cells with intricate spacial distribution patterns resulting in heterogeneity of their overall cellular composition. Laser microdissection involving direct viewing and expertise by a pathologist, enables access to defined cell populations or specific region on any type of tissue sample, thus selecting near-pure populations of targeted cells. It opens the way for molecular methods directed towards well-defined populations, and provides also a powerful tool in studies focused on a limited number of cells. Laser microdissection has wide applications in oncology (diagnosis and research), cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry and forensics for tissue selection, but other areas have been gradually opened up to these new methodological approaches, such as cell cultures and cytogenetics. In clinical oncology trials, molecular profiling of microdissected samples can yield global "omics" information which, together, with the morphological analysis of cells, can provide the basis for diagnosis, prognosis and patient-tailored treatments. This remarkable technology has brought new insights in the understanding of DNA, RNA, and the biological functions and regulation of proteins to identify molecular disease signatures. We review herein the different applications of laser microdissection in a variety of fields, and we particularly focus attention on the pre-analytical steps that are crucial to successfully perform molecular-level investigations.
