Inter-Individual Differences in RNA Levels in Human Peripheral Blood

Relatively little is known about the range of RNA levels in human blood. This report provides assessment of peripheral blood RNA level and its inter-individual differences in a group of 35 healthy humans consisting of 25 females and 10 males ranging in age from 50 to 89 years. In this group, the ave...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2016-02, Vol.11 (2), p.e0148260-e0148260
Main Authors: Chomczynski, Piotr, Wilfinger, William W, Eghbalnia, Hamid R, Kennedy, Amy, Rymaszewski, Michal, Mackey, Karol
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Analysis
Biology and Life Sciences
Blood
Blood & organ donations
Blood Cell Count
Brochures
Cancer
Cell number
Consent
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
DNA - blood
DNA methylation
Female
Females
Gene Expression
Gene sequencing
Genes, Essential
Genetic aspects
Genetic Variation
Genomes
Genomics
Humans
Male
Males
Medicine and Health Sciences
Middle Aged
Peripheral blood
Polymerase chain reaction
Polymerase Chain Reaction - standards
Reproducibility of Results
Research and analysis methods
Ribonucleic acid
RNA
RNA - blood
RNA sequencing
RNA, Messenger - blood
Statistical analysis
Studies
Trends
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Items that cite this one
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Summary:Relatively little is known about the range of RNA levels in human blood. This report provides assessment of peripheral blood RNA level and its inter-individual differences in a group of 35 healthy humans consisting of 25 females and 10 males ranging in age from 50 to 89 years. In this group, the average total RNA level was 14.59 μg/ml of blood, with no statistically significant difference between females and males. The individual RNA level ranged from 6.7 to 22.7 μg/ml of blood. In healthy subjects, the repeated sampling of an individual's blood showed that RNA level, whether high or low, was stable. The inter-individual differences in RNA level in blood can be attributed to both, differences in cell number and the amount of RNA per cell. The 3.4-fold range of inter-individual differences in total RNA levels, documented herein, should be taken into account when evaluating the results of quantitative RT-PCR and/or RNA sequencing studies of human blood. Based on the presented results, a comprehensive assessment of gene expression in blood should involve determination of both the amount of mRNA per unit of total RNA (U / ng RNA) and the amount of mRNA per unit of blood (U / ml blood) to assure a thorough interpretation of physiological or pathological relevance of study results.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0148260