15283-B-Blokker

135 PM tissue biopsies obtained at MIA: an RNA-quality analysis 7 Figure 3. RNA integrity and GAPDH expression versus post-mortem intervals in MIA and CA samples. Legend: In figure 3A and B the median RIN value (X-axis) decreases with the post mortem interval (PMI; Y-axis). The fresh frozen specimens (PMI = 0) show the highest RNA integrity. PMI 1 is exclusively comprised of MIA samples. PMI 2 to 5 are comprised of both MIA and CA samples. The actual PMI intervals are given in table 3. In figures 3C and D the results of RT-qPCR with GAPDH 71 bp are shown in the same context. Here we can appreciate that RT-qPCR is a more sensitive method of RNA integrity measurement, since it was possible to find significant differences not only between PMI 0 and PMI 1, as was also measured with RIN values, but also between PMI 1 and PMI 2. Potential advantages of MIA over CA for obtaining metastatic tumor tissue are the higher chance of getting consent from bereaved relatives, and the better feasibility to reduce PMI, which is the most crucial factor for high quality post mortem tissue for molecular analyses.