Improved speed and sensitivity of mass spectrometry allow the simultaneous quantification of high numbers of proteins from increasingly smaller quantities of tissue sample. Quantitative data of the proteome is highly valuable for providing unbiased information on, for example, protein expression changes related to disease or identifying related biomarkers. In brain diseases the affected area can be small and pathogenic events can be related to a specific cell type in an otherwise heterogeneous tissue type. An emerging approach dedicated to analyzing this type of samples is laser micro-dissection (LMD) combined with LC-MS/MS into a single workflow. In this chapter, we describe different options for isolating tissue suitable for LC-MS/MS analysis.
Keywords: Human brain; Immunohistochemistry; Inclusion bodies; Laser capture; Laser microdissection; Mass spectrometry; Post-mortem tissue; Protein aggregates; Proteomics; Single cell.