RNA ISOLATION AND DETECTION OF CELLULAR RNA QUANTITY OF SPERMATOZOA AND EMBRYOS PRIOR TO GENE EXPRESSION ANALYSES

Abstract

Objective: Biological samples that are analyzed in reproductive biology are generally rare, difficult to obtain, and a nonreplicable group of cells. Furthermore, investigating low numbers of cells requires modifications to the routine methods used in genetic analyses. The aim of our study was to improve RNA isolation methods for obtaining a sufficient amount of total RNA from spermatozoa and embryo samples for downstream gene expression analyses.