I was trying to check RNA quality on a denaturing gel but it did not work. Because I am pregnant, I could not tolerate using formaldehyde and formamide in the preparations. Can you suggest other methods with non-noxious chemicals?
Perhaps you can have access to a Bioanalyzer in your institution?. It is more expensive because probably you will need to buy the chips, but you avoid chemicals.
I always check integrity and quality as follows: I prepare: 200 ng of RNA sample plus 1 ul loading buffer plus 6 ul formamide and resolve the sample in 1.5% agarose gels with running buffer TAE1x (no formaldehyde or formamide in the buffer)