Thermal modeling of laser capture microdissection

A first-order thermal analysis is applied to Laser Capture Microdissection (LCM), a new microscope technique for routine targeting and extraction of specific cells from tissue sections for subsequent multiplex molecular analysis. In LCM a polymer film placed in contact with the tissue is focally activated by a pulsed IR laser beam and is melted and bonded to adjacent targeted cells. A three-dimensional finite-element model is used to predict the thermal transients within the polymer, the captured tissue, and its macromolecules. The simulations allow a comparison of models for the physical process of LCM with the experimental data on the dependence of the transfer spot size on laser power. The validated physical model and the thermal simulations permit optimization of the complex LCM parameter space for a wide variety of configurations and applications. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 140.6810. 160.6840, 170.1530, 170.4730, 350.5340.