Abstract
Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) is a valuable tool for measuring gene expression in cells and tissues. Unique challenges are encountered when studies are performed on cells microdissected from small specific areas of frozen animal or human tissue. This chapter describes the analysis of gene expression of chemokines and cytokines that are important for the differentiation and migration of germinal center (GC) derived plasmablasts/plasma cells and memory B cells by using laser capture microdissection (LCM) and qRT-PCR to examine tissue sections.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Toellner KM (2014) Cognate interactions: extrafollicular IL-4 drives germinal-center reactions, a new role for an old cytokine. Eur J Immunol 44(7):1917–1920. doi:10.1002/eji.201444825
MacLennan IC (1994) Germinal centers. Annu Rev Immunol 12:117–139. doi:10.1146/annurev.iy.12.040194.001001
Fink L, Bohle RM (2005) Laser microdissection and RNA analysis. Methods Mol Biol 293:167–185
Datta S, Malhotra L, Dickerson R, Chaffee S, Sen CK, Roy S (2015) Laser capture microdissection: big data from small samples. Histol Histopathol 30(11):1255–1269. doi:10.14670/HH-11-622
Toellner KM, Khan M, Sze DM (2004) Analysis of the germinal center reaction and in vivo long-lived plasma cells. Methods Mol Biol 271:111–125. doi:10.1385/1-59259-796-3:111
Cummings M, McGinley CV, Wilkinson N, Field SL, Duffy SR, Orsi NM (2011) A robust RNA integrity-preserving staining protocol for laser capture microdissection of endometrial cancer tissue. Anal Biochem 416(1):123–125. doi:10.1016/j.ab.2011.05.009
Marshall JL, Zhang Y, Pallan L, Hsu MC, Khan M, Cunningham AF, MacLennan IC, Toellner KM (2011) Early B blasts acquire a capacity for Ig class switch recombination that is lost as they become plasmablasts. Eur J Immunol 41(12):3506–3512. doi:10.1002/eji.201141762
Zhang Y, Meyer-Hermann M, George LA, Figge MT, Khan M, Goodall M, Young SP, Reynolds A, Falciani F, Waisman A, Notley CA, Ehrenstein MR, Kosco-Vilbois M, Toellner KM (2013) Germinal center B cells govern their own fate via antibody feedback. J Exp Med 210(3):457–464. doi:10.1084/jem.20120150
Nossal GJ, Karvelas M (1990) Soluble antigen abrogates the appearance of anti-protein IgG1-forming cell precursors during primary immunization. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 87(4):1615–1619
Erickson HS, Albert PS, Gillespie JW, Rodriguez-Canales J, Marston Linehan W, Pinto PA, Chuaqui RF, Emmert-Buck MR (2009) Quantitative RT-PCR gene expression analysis of laser microdissected tissue samples. Nat Protoc 4(6):902–922. doi:10.1038/nprot.2009.61
Nolan T, Hands RE, Bustin SA (2006) Quantification of mRNA using real-time RT-PCR. Nat Protoc 1(3):1559–1582. doi:10.1038/nprot.2006.236
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by grants from the MRC (Topjabs, G1001390) and BBSRC (BB/M025292/1), and received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under Research Executive Agency grant agreement № 315902. LGI gratefully acknowledges receipt of a Marie Curie Research Associate post. GB and K-MT are partners within the Marie Curie Initial Training Network DECIDE (Decision-making within cells and differentiation entity therapies).
Competing Financial Interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media LLC
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Zhang, Y., Garcia-Ibanez, L., Brown, G., Toellner, KM. (2017). Detecting Gene Expression in Lymphoid Microenvironments by Laser Microdissection and Quantitative RT-PCR. In: Calado, D. (eds) Germinal Centers. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1623. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7095-7_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7095-7_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-7094-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-7095-7
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols