The rapid acceptance of immunohistology as an invaluable adjunct to morphologic diagnosis has been possible because of the development of new and more sensitive antibodies and detection systems that allow its application to formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue (FFPT). More ...

Tissue microarrays (TMAs) are produced by taking small punches from a series of paraffin-embedded (donor) tissue blocks and transferring these tissue cores into a positionally encoded array in a recipient paraffin block. Though TMAs are not used for clinical diagnosis, they have several ...

Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) archival tissues and their associated diagnostic records represent an invaluable source of information on diseases where the patient outcomes are already known. Older archives contain many unique FFPE tissue specimens that would be i ...

Molecular analysis of tissue lesions is increasingly used in laboratories to identify new prognostic and therapeutic markers. Formalin has long been the tissue fixative of choice in the laboratories of pathology, as it preserves tissue morphology allowing accurate histological d ...

Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue archives and their associated diagnostic records represent an invaluable source of proteomic information on diseases where the patient outcomes are already known. Over the last few years, advances in methodology have made it poss ...

Gene expression profiling of RNA isolated from formalin fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples has been historically challenging. Yet FFPE samples are sought-after because of the in-depth retrospective records typically associated with them rendering these samples a ...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small (19–23nt), highly conserved noncoding RNAs that posttranscriptionally regulate target gene expression. Altered expression of miRNAs has been demonstrated in many different human diseases, including cancer. The large archives of formalin-fixe ...

A molecular test providing clear identification of individuals at highest risk for developing metastatic disease from among early stage breast cancer patients has proven to be of great benefit in breast cancer treatment planning and therapeutic management. Patients with high risk of ...

Although RNA is isolated from archival fixed tissues routinely for reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and microarray analyses to identify biomarkers of cancer prognosis and therapeutic response prediction, the sensitivity of these molecular profil ...

Novel biomarkers are sought after by mining DNA extracted from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues. Such tissues offer the great advantage of often having complete clinical data (including survival), as well as the tissues are amenable for laser microdissection targ ...

Gene promoter hypermethylation is recognised as an important mechanism by which genes may be silenced both physiologically and in disease states. This mechanism of gene silencing has been shown to play a role in many common human tumours. A number of methods are available for the detection of pro ...

Whole genome amplification systems were developed to meet the increasing research demands on DNA resources and to avoid DNA shortage. The technology enables amplification of nanogram amounts of DNA into microgram quantities and is increasingly used in the amplification of DNA from mu ...

High-density oligonucleotide microarrays are commonly used for GWAS studies as well as for tumor genome alteration identifications. The recent Affymetrix Genome-Wide SNP 6.0 microarray generation has two major advantages: (1) showing high genome coverage and (2) starting with ve ...

Glucose metabolism plays an important role in cardiac bioenergetics that changes under various stress conditions including hypertrophy, diabetic cardiomyopathy, and ischemia-reperfusion injury. To understand the role of glycolysis under these conditions, we have alter ...

Increased interest in cardiac safety and renewed interest in drugs for treating myocardial ischemia and congestive heart failure have led to increased use of cardiovascular models. Unfortunately, many molecular or cell-based screens are not perfect predictors of activity in vivo. O ...

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the industrialized world. Diabetes is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Unchecked diabetes can also lead to renal failure, blindness, heart attack, stroke, and amputation. The focus of this chapter will be to review the dif ...

Hypertension affects approximately 25% of adults and is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Although there are currently adequate therapeutic options for humans with hypertension, the molecular mechanisms underlying hypertension are still relatively unknown. T ...

In response to an increased afterload, the myocardium undergoes a complex adaptation by which wall stress is normalized and cardiac output is maintained. Although the consensus suggests that the increase of the myocardial mass is a necessary adaptive process to accommodate the increas ...

The liver consists of many cell types with specialized functions. Hepatocytes are one of the main players in the organ and therefore are the most vulnerable cells to damage. Since they are not everlasting cells, they need to be replenished throughout life. Although the capacity of hepatocytes to c ...

Liver progenitor cells may play an important role in carcinogenesis in vivo and represent therefore useful cellular materials for in vitro studies. The HepaRG cell line, which is a human bipotent progenitor cell line capable to differentiate toward two different cell phenotypes (i.e., bi ...