Laser capture microdissection for proteome analysis.

Laser capture microdissection is being employed increasingly to isolate specific cell types from tissues, thus overcoming problems of experimental interpretation due to tissue heterogeneity of samples. This unit describes protocols which have been optimized to allow laser capture microdissection of tissues with minimal effect on protein integrity, and their subsequent analysis by techniques including 2D-PAGE, immunoblotting and SELDI, and discusses the relative merits of this approach.