Senescent vs. non-senescent cells in the human annulus in vivo: cell harvest with laser capture microdissection and gene expression studies with microarray analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Senescent cells are well-recognized in the aging/degenerating human disc. Senescent cells are viable, cannot divide, remain metabolically active and accumulate within the disc over time. Molecular analysis of senescent cells in tissue offers a special challenge since there are no cell surface markers for senescence which would let one use fluorescence-activated cell sorting as a method for separating out senescent cells.

Methods

We employed a novel laser capture microdissection (LCM) design to selectively harvest senescent and non-senescent annulus cells in paraffin-embedded tissue, and compared their gene expression with microarray analysis. LCM was used to separately harvest senescent and non-senescent cells from 11 human annulus specimens.

Results

Microa

SUBMITTER: Gruber HE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2828399 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature