MicroRNA profiling is more stable than messenger RNA against RNA degradation

5029 The RNA integrity is critical in obtaining meaningful gene expression data. Although using intact messenger RNA (mRNA) is key to ensure the reliability of gene expression profiling, there are difficulties in obtaining intact total RNA from clinical specimens. Recent studies show that microRNA (miRNA) expression profiling holds great promise in human disease characterization, potentially as defining markers for tumor classification and biomarkers. Small RNA molecules, such as miRNAs, are expected to be less affected by random RNA degradation, but the impact of RNA degradation on miRNA profiling has not been characterized. Using the Agilent microarray platforms, we examined the effect of RNA degradation using heat treatments by comparing the untreated and the corresponding degraded RNA samples for changes in mRNA and miRNA expression profiles. The impact of degradation treatments on the RNA sample was monitored with the Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer, a microfluidic capillary electrophoresis system that provides an RNA Integrity Number (RIN), and a separate small RNA assay. Our results showed that the miRNA expression profile is less affected by the degradation treatments than the mRNA profiles. This result shows the potential of miRNA to profile more degraded RNA from clinical specimens.