Venipuncture is one of the easiest clinical procedures to obtain viable blood samples to evaluate gene expression using mRNA analysis. However, the use of this sample type in reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction tests (RT-PCR) without prior treatment is controversial. We therefore propose to compare the suitability of different peripheral blood samples (whole blood without treatment, whole blood with hemolysis, peripheral blood mononuclear cells and frozen whole blood) for RT-PCR analysis. The results showed that, despite the blood sample being peripheral, it is possible to extract a fair amount of RNA and perform target gene amplification. Thus, peripheral blood without prior treatment could be used to investigate the gene expression using Real Time PCR.
Blood specimen collection; Gene expression; RNA, messenger; genetic; Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction; Spectrophotometers
