Abstract
The isolation of undegraded RNA, free from inhibitors of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), is a major technical challenge in the analysis of gene expression in the skeleton. Bone is a mineralized tissue containing an abundant matrix, which makes RNA isolation difficult. On the positive side, however, frozen bone is quite brittle and can be ground to a powder, thus releasing the cell contents. Reno and colleagues (1) evaluated 12 different protocols for isolating total RNA from small amounts of rabbit ligament, cartilage, and tendon using phenol-guanidinium-based reagents. Like bone, these tissues contain few cells in an abundant organic matrix. Absence of ribosomal bands, nondetection of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) mRNA on Northern blotting, presence of DNA and/or protein contamination, and insoluble RNA pellets generated by these procedures led to the development of the Trispin method, based on a combination of two commercially available kits (2). In this procedure, the tissue is powdered in a stainless steel ball mill vessel that is cooled in liquid nitrogen. We have used a ball mill and modified Trispin method to extract high-quality, RT-PCR-ready RNA from bone samples.
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References
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© 2003 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ
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Ireland, D. (2003). Analysis of Gene Expression in Bone by Quantitative RT-PCR. In: Helfrich, M.H., Ralston, S.H. (eds) Bone Research Protocols. Methods in Molecular Medicine, vol 80. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-366-6:433
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-366-6:433
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-044-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-366-8
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