total RNA (for miRNA) extraction from human serum - (Jan/05/2010 )

I have extracted RNA from plasma using Trizol, Qiagen's kit and Norgen Biotek's kit. The RNA integrity parameters don't apply here. The RNA is degraded as expected.
The best miRNA amplification we got were from Norgen Biotek Kit. Qiagen's kit did not work. Trizol was Ok but was quite variable, probably becase of the ethanol ppt. We used columns after Trizol it was a bit better but the cost of Trizol and columns was now expensive and the procedure was lengthy.

We are now processing large number of samples with the Norgen Biotek kit.

mulain on Jan 12 2010, 02:59 AM said:

Hi,

You should not expect to see ribosomal RNA bands from plasma or serum, unless the sample is contaminated with cells.
You can use the isolate RNA to amplify a specific miRNA to check the quality.

Thanks