Tissue Microarrays in Biomedical Research

  • Chung, Joon-Yong (Mitochondrial Signaling Laboratory, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, College of Medicine, Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Center, Biohealth Products Research Center, Tissue Array Research Program, Laboratory of Pathology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health) ;
  • Kim, Nari (Mitochondrial Signaling Laboratory, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, College of Medicine, Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Center, Biohealth Products Research Center) ;
  • Joo, Hyun (Mitochondrial Signaling Laboratory, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, College of Medicine, Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Center, Biohealth Products Research Center) ;
  • Youm, Jae-Boum (Mitochondrial Signaling Laboratory, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, College of Medicine, Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Center, Biohealth Products Research Center) ;
  • Park, Won-Sun (Mitochondrial Signaling Laboratory, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, College of Medicine, Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Center, Biohealth Products Research Center) ;
  • Lee, Sang-Kyoung (Mitochondrial Signaling Laboratory, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, College of Medicine, Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Center, Biohealth Products Research Center, Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Inje University) ;
  • Warda, Mohamad (Mitochondrial Signaling Laboratory, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, College of Medicine, Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Center, Biohealth Products Research Center) ;
  • Han, Jin (Mitochondrial Signaling Laboratory, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, College of Medicine, Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Center, Biohealth Products Research Center)
  • Published : 2006.02.28

Abstract

Recent studies in molecular biology and proteomics have identified a significant number of novel diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic disease markers. However, validation of these markers in clinical specimens with traditional histopathological techniques involves low throughput and is time consuming and labor intensive. Tissue microarrays (TMAs) offer a means of combining tens to hundreds of specimens of tissue onto a single slide for simultaneous analysis. This capability is particularly pertinent in the field of cancer for target verification of data obtained from cDNA micro arrays and protein expression profiling of tissues, as well as in epidemiology-based investigations using histochemical/immunohistochemical staining or in situ hybridization. In combination with automated image analysis, TMA technology can be used in the global cellular network analysis of tissues. In particular, this potential has generated much excitement in cardiovascular disease research. The following review discusses recent advances in the construction and application of TMAs and the opportunity for developing novel, highly sensitive diagnostic tools for the early detection of cardiovascular disease.

Keywords