Comparison of automated and manual purification of total RNA for mRNA-based identification of body fluids

Silica column-based RNA purification procedures have widespread use in mRNA profiling for body fluid identification in forensic samples. Also, automated RNA purification systems employing magnetic bead technology have recently become available. In this preliminary study, to ascertain which RNA purification technology is more suitable for the identification of body fluids by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), comparative analyses of the yield and quality of total RNA were performed between automated purification using an EZ1 Advanced Instrument and manual purification using an RNeasy Mini Kit. The yield and size distribution of total RNA were compared by gene expression analysis of two different sized fragments of the β-actin gene. In addition, the relative amounts of several target genes were compared between the purification methods, and the integrity of total RNA was determined by chip-based electrophoresis. The results of this study suggest that RNeasy can purify higher-quality RNA as compared with automated purification using EZ1. The sensitivity of the RT-PCR analysis, however, was higher in the EZ1-purified samples, likely due to the relative efficiency of EZ1 in extracting short-length RNA from degraded samples. We also show that the quantification of relative levels of body fluid-specific genes could be influenced by the purification procedure. Our results indicate that although use of high-quality RNA is generally required for reproducible results in gene expression analysis, the forensic relevance of short RNA fragments in highly degraded samples cannot be ruled out. Furthermore, our results suggest that automated purification procedures as well as silica column-based manual purification procedures can be used for mRNA-based body fluid identification in forensic samples.