I need to isolate RNA, DNA and protein from lots of samples of hippocampus and pre-frontal cortex obtained from adult rats. Would there be a problem if I were to use ultrasonic waves to homogenize tissue samples + TRIzol before following the protocols?
DNAs and RNAs might be sheared into smaller fragments. There's also paper discuss about this issue.
Ultrasonic Degradation of DNA
HENRIK I. ELSNER and ERIK B. LINDBLAD
DNA. December 1989, Vol. 8, No. 10: 697-701
The correct answer is "yes, but..."
Ultrasonication will shear DNA and degrade RNA. However, brain will homogenize very easily and quickly. So long as you don't need a very high RNA quality or extremely long DNA fragments, you should be fine.
Be sure to homogenize on ice or with some other cooling method to prevent buildup of heat, as that will effect RNA quality as well and ultrasonic homogenizers can impart a good deal of heat. Lastly, don't run the ultrasonic homogenizer for any longer than you need to. If you have some spare / waste brain tissue, it would be good to optimize the experiment to ensure you hit the "sweet spot" where extraction is high while RNA and DNA degradation / shearing are low.
If you would like more information about ultrasonic homogenization, you can find some here: http://homogenizers.net/pages/ac-ultrasonic-homogenization
a procedure for tissue homogenization by ultrasonication for estimating malondialdehyde please in liver please
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