Researcher: I need to generate a cDNA library from only a few milligrams of an aortic tissue biopsy. Is this possible using your MPG® mRNA Purification Kits and can I scale your protocols down linearly?

TechTALKer:Our MPG^® mRNA Purification Kits, which contain 10 mg MPG^® Streptavidin Complex can be used to isolate mRNA from single cells, therefore, an aortic tissue biopsy is no problem. The protocol provided with these kits is designed for larger samples. For such small amounts of starting material the protocol should not be scaled down proportionately. The following are scaling guidelines. The minimum recommended amount of magnetic particles for a 1.5 ml microfuge tube is 10 µl (100 µg). This amount can still be easily seen. The wash volumes and Homogenization Buffer volumes should be about 100 µl and enzymatic reaction volumes are generally between 20-50 µl. Further tips on working with small amounts of material can be found in the following reference: Eberwine, J. (1996) BioTechniques 20:584-586.

Related Product Pages

• MPG® Direct mRNA Purification Kit
  mRNA directly from tissues or cells

• MPG® Guanide Direct mRNA Purification Kit
  mRNA directly from cells or animal tissue containing high levels of RNase