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Tissue dissection systems that are used to perform dissection and capture of specimens for analysis down to the cellular (and sometimes subcellular or micron) level using a pulsed UV laser (usually N2 laser or diode-pumped solid state laser) in combination with a light microscope and low-level tracing laser (usually He-Ne laser). These microdissection systems consist of a low-level laser for tracing or marking the desired section to be cut,; a high precision optically-guided laser (pulsed UV laser) for cutting;, a special membrane -coated slide (usually polyethylene naphthalate, polyethylene terephthalate, or polyester UV-sensitive material) to hold the tissue specimen to be dissected;, a microscope with stage to hold the slides;, collection wells for dissected samples;, and a dedicated computer-user interface to display the tissue specimen and control laser intensity and sample marking and cutting. Some laser microdissectors have laser pressure catapulting systems (called optical tweezers) for collection of dissected samples while others rely on gravity to collect dissected samples. The laser catapulting system uses a laser blast of pressure to catapult the cut specimen into a drop of glycerol on a piece of glass held by a micromanipulator a few millimeters above the slide while other microdissectors use gravity to collect specimens from inverted slides into collection wells below the slide. Samples collected by gravity or by laser -pressure catapulting are then processed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) or other molecular genetic or proteomic techniques. Laser microdissection systems are used in the clinical laboratory for isolation of very specific tissue sections, cells or subcellular components for further pathological, cytogenetic or proteomic analysis.
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