I want to ship total RNA (prepared from dendritic cells using Qiagen RNeasy Mini kit and stored at -80°C) to a overseas laboratory for performing microarray analysis. I thought to send the RNA with dry ice, but shipping will take 2-3 days. Another option would be to make cDNA first. For microarray experiments we are going to use the Illumina® TotalPrep™ RNA Amplification Kit for conversion into cRNA and the HumanHT-12 v4 Expression BeadChip Kit. My question is: would it be safer to ship total RNA or the cRNA obtained with the Illumina kit?
My suggestion would be to contact the laboratory who will be doing the analysis and ask them for their specific recommendations. Since they are the ones who will be handling your samples, they will be the best ones to give you specific advice that will work with their protocols.
We have safely shipped from Europe and the US to Australia on dry ice. There are shipping companies (World Courier, for ex.) which will top up dry ice en route.
The best way that I know:
add DW up to 90 ul, then add 10 ul of 3M NaOAc. (if your RNA is less than 500 ng, add 5 ug of Glycogen). mix thoroughly. then add 250 ul of 100% EtOH. mix one more time. ship this RNA (in EtOH) at -20'C
If the receiver receives your sample, they should do centrifuge at 13200 rpm, 4'C, for 15-30 min. then decant the supernatant, add 500 ul of 75% EtOH, vortex, centrifuge for 5 min, decant the supernatant, add 10 ul (or appropriate volume) of DW.
Summary: do EtOH precipitation for your RNA.
Many thanks for your helpful answers...
Darya: When you had shipped RNA samples, did you add any RNA stabilizer, e.g. RNasin?
Does anyone know, if GenTegra RNA (which protects RNA from degradation by storage in a dry state) conserves RNA sufficiently for subsequent microarray experiments?
Thanks!
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