Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 19, 2026
miRNA Expression Analyses in Prostate Cancer Clinical Tissues
Published on: September 8, 2015
Normalization of gene expression measurement of tissue samples obtained by transurethral resection of bladder tumors
Laura A Pop1, Valentina Pileczki2, Roxana M Cojocneanu-Petric1
1The Research Center for Functional Genomics, Biomedicine and Translational Medicine, Iuliu Haţieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Cluj, Romania.
Background:
Sample processing is a crucial step for all types of genomic studies. A major challenge for researchers is to understand and predict how RNA quality affects the identification of transcriptional differences (by introducing either false-positive or false-negative errors). Nanotechnologies help improve the quality and quantity control for gene expression studies.
Patients And Methods:
The study was performed on 14 tumor and matched normal pairs of tissue from patients with bladder urothelial carcinomas. We assessed the RNA quantity by using the NanoDrop spectrophotometer and the quality by nano-microfluidic capillary electrophoresis technology provided by Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer. We evaluated the amplification status of three housekeeping genes and one small nuclear RNA gene using the ViiA 7 platform, with specific primers.
Results:
Every step of the sample handling protocol, which begins with sample harvest and ends with the data analysis, is of utmost importance due to the fact that it is time consuming, labor intensive, and highly expensive. High temperature of the surgical procedure does not affect the small nucleic acid sequences in comparison with the mRNA.
Conclusion:
Gene expression is clearly affected by the RNA quality, but less affected in the case of small nuclear RNAs. We proved that the high-temperature, highly invasive transurethral resection of bladder tumor procedure damages the tissue and affects the integrity of the RNA from biological specimens.
