Large-scale microarray gene expression analysis in discrete electrophysiologically identified neuronal clusters

The normal processes of learning and memory as well as the pathological progress of various neurological diseases may result in changes in gene expression in small, local populations of neurons in any given brain area, leading to the occurrence of specific patterns of electrical activity without easily detectable changes in the morphology of this brain area. One way of identifying these changes might be the comparison of gene expression of areas which generate and areas which do not generate specific patterns of electrical activity. A method for microbiopsy of limited (0.5-1.0 mm3) tissue samples from electrophysiologically identified areas of neurons generating epileptiform activity in the rat brain is described. Here we demonstrate that total RNA isolated from individual microbiopsy samples might be successfully used for microarray based gene expression analysis of any discretely localized neuronal group which can be identified electrophysiologically, including neurons in cortical columns, cell assemblies or other functional units.