I think Qiagen’s RNA Mini Kit is one of the best kits to isolate maximal amount of RNA with high quality. Although I used before 3 different kits: NucleoSpin, GeneAll, and Qiagen, however the last one is the best.
Qiagen RNA minikit is just OK but Direct-zol RNA mini-prep from Epigenetics is the best one. You can preserve tissue/cells for a few weeks in Trizol and then move directly to the column purification and also you can do DNase treatment on the column and elute your sample in only 6 microliters (or more if you wish).
I did. Direct-zol gave me superior quality and yield. You can add TRIZOL directly to your cells, scrape them off and lyse the cells for about 10-15 min at room T. You can store lysate for a few weeks at -80C. It is especially convenient if you have to pool together small amount of cells from several collections. Good luck.
Thank you for your answer. I used up the Direct-zol kit and the new ordered one hasn't arrived. I have already prepared the cells. We have the Qiagen miRNeasy Mini kit in the lab but I never used it. Are there much difference between these two?. Thank you very much.
Depending on your need. Qiagen miRNeasy is adequate for most application but I like Direct-zol because you can do everything in one column and your losses are minimal. Elution volume is smaller so you end up with more concentrated RNA. If you working with cell cultures both kits should give you about the same outcome but for very small samples I would recommend Direct-zol.