2007 Arcturus® Laser Capture Microdissection (LCM) Users Meetings
MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Thanks to everyone who attended the Arcturus LCM Users Meeting at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX . Special thanks to Kasey Vickers from Baylor College of Medicine for helping to make this user meeting a great success.
The presentation topics are listed below and available for viewing in PDF format. If a presentation is not available here, please contact the author directly for more information.
- Gene Regulation in Calcifying Vascular Cells
Kasey Vickers, Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Cardiovascular Sciences
Human ectopic vascular calcification is associated with advanced atherosclerosis and ultimately increases risk for myocardial infarctions and ischemic events. Osteogenesis of the vascular wall is characterized by an active cellular contribution from calcifying vascular cells (CVCs). These cells are thought to arise from smooth muscle cell trans-differentiation. Laser capture microdissection techniques have facilitated the homogeneous study of these cells. Many repressors of osteogenesis and CVC differentiation are inhibited or repressed during SMC trans-differentiation. Furthermore, unregulated activity of master transcription factors drives the robust expression of downstream osteogenic targets resulting in ectopic mineralizations. Laser capture microdissection provides an elegant method for studying gene regulation of calcifying vascular cells in human atherosclerosis.
- Presentation not available. Please contact author for more information.
- Arcturus LCM and Microgenomics Product Overview
Steve Blakely, Molecular Devices
Laser Capture Microdissection (LCM) is a proven technique for isolating pure cell populations for downstream molecular analysis. Combined UV laser cutting and LCM using the IR laser, found only with Arcturus® LCM Instruments, allows for rapid and precise isolation of larger numbers of cells, while maintaining cellular and nucleic acid integrity necessary for downstream analysis.
Molecular Devices, a Division of Molecular Devices, recently introduced the Arcturus XT ™ Microdissection Instrument. The open-architecture Arcturus XT system is built upon the Nikon TE2000U ® inverted research grade microscope, and combines infrared (IR) laser-enabled laser capture microdissection (LCM) and ultraviolet (UV) laser cutting in a single modular instrument, offering researchers superior speed, precision and flexibility. By utilizing the Nikon TE2000U, the Arcturus XT is completely modular and fully upgradeable, allowing the system utility to expand as research requirements grow and microdissection technologies emerge.
Molecular Devices offers the full solution of Microgenomics reagent products that support and complement the LCM technology, from kits for tissue section staining and nucleic acid extraction to kits for RNA amplification and labeling for microarray analysis. The microgenomics platform benefits the researcher as it ensures high efficiency recovery of quality total RNA from as little as a single cell, obtained through LCM. High sensitivity linear amplification of mRNA is possible from as little as 100 picograms (10 LCM cells) of total RNA, generating enough aRNA for replicate microarray hybridizations. Linear amplification is followed by non-enzymatic labeling, which allows the use of unlabeled nucleotides during amplification. This enables the use of lesser amounts of starting material and results in higher aRNA yields and higher %P calls during microarray analysis. This complete microgenomics platform has been validated for use with all common microarray platforms
- Arcturus LCM Protocols and Troubleshooting
Deren Lomago, Application Scientist, Molecular Devices
- Axon GenePix® Microarray Scanners and Software
Varshal Davé, Molecular Devices
|
