Gene profiling of laser-microdissected brain regions and sub-regions

The application of transcriptomics and proteomics approaches to accurately dissected anatomically-defined brain regions and sub-regions remains a central focus of current neurobiological investigations as well as a necessary step towards single-neuron neurogenomics and neuroproteomics. A protocol is described for the simple, rapid, and reproducible laser microdissection of brain regions and sub-regions for microarray-based gene expression analyses from individual rats or mice using two rounds of in vitro transcription (IVT). The results presented also demonstrate that the current Affymetrix GeneChip® arrays are well suited for this experimental design with high reproducibility and limited effects of the shortening of target RNA caused by the double IVT approach.