Purification and quantitative analysis of nucleic acids by anion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography

A novel and reliable high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method is described for the purification and quantification of double-stranded DNA. The nucleic acids may be obtained by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or as restriction fragments from enzymatic cleavage; the separated products are devoid of contaminating material like agarose, ethidium bromide or non-specific DNA sequences. Because of the non-destructive nature of this HPLC procedure, the purified DNA is optimally suited for cloning experiments. The DNA separation by HPLC has major advantages when combined with reverse transcription (RT)-PCR. This is exemplified by analysis of the TNF-alpha mRNA obtained from endotoxin-elicited rat liver macrophages. If the standard procedure of Northern blotting is compared with the combination of RT-PCR and quantification of the PCR products by HPLC, it is obvious that the dynamic changes of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha mRNA synthesis are at least as precisely reflected with the RT-PCR/HPLC combination. The latter method is presented as a reliable and powerful tool for quantitative studies on gene expression.