Tissue microarrays. High-throughput procedures to verify potential biomarkers

High-throughput molecular screening tools have created a need for equally rapid means to verify potential biomarkers. Tissue microarray (TMA) technology facilitates effective analysis on the protein level. Hundreds of 0.6-mm-diameter tissue samples are placed on a single standard glass slide. This approach allows analysis with different in situ methods of all tissue samples in one experiment under standardized conditions. TMAs are not only perfectly suited for molecular epidemiologic studies if applied on multitumor arrays composed of a variety of tumor entities, but they are also used for tumor-specific investigations of molecular markers. In this report the technical aspects of TMAs as a miniaturized high-throughput technology are described. We further demonstrate how the TMA technique will help to accelerate the transition from basic research to clinical application in prostate cancer disease.