LASER-ASSISTED PREPARATION OF SINGLE CELLS FROM STAINED HISTOLOGICAL SLIDES FOR GENE ANALYSIS

Individual cells are prepared from histological tissue sections of rou tinely formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissues using an ultraviol et laser micromanipulator. This technology, in combination with polyme rase chain reaction (PCR)-based gene analysis, will enable researchers to routinely detect a variety of nucleic acid abnormalities underlyin g cancer, infection, and genetic disease with previously unknown sensi tivity: at the single cell level. The utility of this technique is dem onstrated by PCR amplification and sequencing of the E-cadherin gene, which codes for a hemophilic cell-to-cell adhesion molecule, in early gastric carcinomas of the diffuse type of Lauren's classification. The main characteristics of the laser-assisted microdissection technique are high precision without contamination and easy application. The ass ignment of individual gene sequences to single cells will now provide a direct link between molecular biology on the one hand and histology and pathology on the other.