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Creative Biolabs has been a long-term expert in the field of microfluidic chip development. Based on our comprehensive microfluidic platform and extensive experience, we are pleased to provide high-quality microfluidic chip development services for the detection of microsatellite DNA.
Microsatellites, also commonly known as STRs (short tandem repeats) or SSRs (simple sequence repeats), are short repetitive DNA sequences of 2-6 base pairs (bp) abundantly distributed throughout genomes. The two allelic copies of a microsatellite segment are different which results in high discrimination at the individual level. Some studies showed that the alterations in these microsatellite loci are caused by base-pair mismatches usually appearing during the DNA replication and cannot be repaired due to a defective DNA mismatch repair system. As a deviant pattern of the tandem repeats in the respective loci, microsatellite instability (MSI) occurs frequently in various types of cancer. Approximately 10–15% of colorectal, gastric, and endometrial carcinomas are associated with MSI. There are 5 microsatellite loci recommended by the Bethesda guidelines, including Bat25, Bat26, D2S123, D5S346, and D17S250. In this case, MSI analysis is an important tool in molecular diagnostics and clinical research.
Fig. 1 Microfluidic gene screening.1,2
There are a series of technologies for MSI detection, which including fluorochrome-based PCR assays linked to polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis or capillary electrophoresis. Recent studies have shown that microfluidics technology is a novel electrophoresis method with the advantages of high-resolution capacity and short running time. In order to compare microsatellite loci in the tumor to normal tissue, DNA has to be extracted separately for PCR amplification of microsatellite loci. And then the amplified sequences would be analyzed by microfluidic techniques for MSI detection. Because of the microfabrication of the chips, microfluidic-based electrophoresis is easy to use and highly standardized. Besides, microfluidic-based technologies do not rely on labels, so no special procedures or equipment are needed to detect labels. In conclusion, the microfluidic-based approach is a highly time-efficient and easy procedure combined with high sensitivity for MSI analyses.
Creative Biolabs is a leading service provider that focuses on microfluidic chip development. Equipped with our advanced platforms and extensive experience, we have won a good reputation among our worldwide customers for successfully accomplishing numerous challenging projects. If you are interested in our services, please do not hesitate to contact us for more detailed information.
References
For Research Use Only. Not For Clinical Use.