Stability of RNA transcripts in post-mortem psychiatric brains.
RNA isolated from frozen human post-mortem brain tissue was used for analysis of five gene products with a recently developed sensitive and competitive RT-PCR technique. Samples varying in post-mortem intervals up to four days from controls, schizophrenics and alcoholics were analyzed. Evaluation of three housekeeping genes, as well as Trk B and Trk C demonstrated that the levels of mRNA transcripts were stable in brain samples at all time periods (one to four days) examined. This observation demonstrates that this RT-PCR protocol is a sensitive and reliable method to study relative amounts of mRNAs. The overall stability of housekeeping transcripts implicates the value of post-mortem brain samples for differential gene expression studies.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn Medical Center, Federal Republic of Germany.
M
M
Schramm
P
P
Falkai
R
R
Tepest
T
T
Schneider-Axmann
R
R
Przkora
A
A
Waha
T
T
Pietsch
W
W
Bonte
T A
TA
Bayer
D000199:Actins / Q000235:genetics; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000378:metabolism; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D002102:Cadaver; D004355:Drug Stability; D005260:Female; D005987:Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenases / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics; D020801:Receptor, Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor; D020812:Receptor, trkC; D017475:Receptors, Nerve Growth Factor / Q000235:genetics; D012016:Reference Values; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000378:metabolism*; D001613:beta 2-Microglobulin / Q000235:genetics
D000199:Actins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D020801:Receptor, Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor; D017475:Receptors, Nerve Growth Factor; D001613:beta 2-Microglobulin; D005987:Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenases; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases; D020812:Receptor, trkC