Methods for isolation of cell-free plasma DNA strongly affect DNA yield

• Published in: Clinica chimica acta 2011-11, Vol.412 (23-24), p.2085-2088
• Main Authors: Fleischhacker, Michael, Schmidt, Bernd, Weickmann, Sabine, Fersching, Debora M.I., Leszinski, Gloria S., Siegele, Barbara, Stötzer, Oliver J., Nagel, Dorothea, Holdenrieder, Stefan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Base Sequence; Cell-Free System; DNA - blood; DNA Primers; Humans; Isolation method; Plasma DNA; Quantification; Real-time PCR; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
• ISSN: 0009-8981; 1873-3492
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cca.2011.07.011

Extracellular nucleic acids are present in plasma, serum, and other body fluids and their analysis has gained increasing attention during recent years. Because of the small quantity and highly fragmented nature of cell-free DNA in plasma and serum, a fast, efficient, and reliable isolation method is still a problem and so far there is no agreement on a standardized method. We used spin columns from commercial suppliers (QIAamp DNA Blood Midi Kit from Qiagen; NucleoSpin Kit from Macherey-Nagel; MagNA Pure isolation system from Roche Diagnostics) to isolate DNA from 44 plasma samples in parallel at laboratories in Berlin and Munich. DNA in all samples was quantified by real-time PCR on a LightCycler 480 using three different targets (GAPDH, ß-globin, ERV). The quantities of cell-free DNA for the different isolation methods and genes varied between medians of 1.6ng/mL and 28.1ng/mL. This considerable variation of absolute DNA values was mainly caused by the use of different isolation methods (p