Polymerase chain reaction and its clinical applications
Anastasiadou C., Capranos N.
"Amalia Fleming" General Hospital, Athens, Unit of Molecular
Pathology
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a recent revolutionary discovery
of molecular biology, which has obtained broad clinical and diagnostic
applications. PCR is a simple method of amplification of a DNA
region selected from specific primers with the use of DNA polymerase.
This amplification is accomplished with repeated cycles of 3 sequential
reactions which are occurred at different temperatures. PCR is
considered as a very sensitive technique where the final product
after 30-40 cycles arises to 1 billion copies of the initial DNA
sequence. Variations of PCR technique have been developed and
they indulge different laboratory requirements such as sensitivity,
comparison, quantitation, specificity and accuracy of this technique. The applications of PCR include identification of pathogenic
factors, especially viruses, detection of mutations in crucial
genes, which are related with carcinogenesis or the inherited
predisposition of diseases, gene expression, genotypic analysis
of HLA antigens and telomerase activity. The broad range of applications
of PCR and the ongoing knowledge on the structure and function
of genetic material support that PCR will be an integral tool
of diagnostic and research use in the future Pathology laboratory.
Key words: Polymerase chain reaction.
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