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Updated: Jul 8, 2026

Agarose Gel Electrophoresis for the Separation of DNA Fragments
Published on: April 20, 2012
[Comparison between Real-Time PCR and Agarose Gel Electrophoresis for DNA Quantification.]
1Department of Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea. cpworld@cau.ac.kr.
Background:
Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is generally regarded as a very accurate and time-saving method, but it is expensive to run. We evaluated the reliability of an inexpensive and a researcher-friendly gel electrophoresis-based PCR method for the quantification of mRNA, and the results were compared with those obtained by real-time PCR.
Methods:
We compared the results of relative quantification for MMP-1 measured by real-time PCR and by ethidium bromide stained-agarose gel electrophoresis after end-point PCR.
Results:
There was significant but very weak correlation between real-time PCR and end-point PCR for relative quantification of MMP-1 (r=0.16, P<0.01).
Conclusions:
Our results suggest that the use of the gel electrophoresis-based end-point PCR is inappropriate for quantifying mRNA. Therefore, in order to confirm the result of relative quantification by end-point PCR, the newly established real-time PCR method or northern hybridization should be applied.
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