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Bonin S, D’Errico S, Medeot C, Moreschi C, Ciglieri SS, Peruch M, Concato M, Azzalini E, Previderè C, Fattorini P. Evaluation of a Set of miRNAs in 26 Cases of Fatal Traumatic Brain Injuries. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:10836. [PMID: 37446013 PMCID: PMC10341445 DOI: 10.3390/ijms241310836] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2023] [Revised: 06/20/2023] [Accepted: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 07/15/2023] Open
Abstract
In forensic medicine, identifying novel biomarkers for use as diagnostic tools to ascertain causes of death is challenging because of sample degradation. To that aim, a cohort (n = 26) of fatal traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) were tested for three candidate miRNAs (namely, miR-124-3p, miR-138-5p, and miR144-3p). For each case, three FFPE specimens (coup area (CA), contrecoup area (CCA), and the corpus callosum (CC)) were investigated, whereas the FFPE brain tissues of 45 subjects (deceased due to acute cardiovascular events) were used as controls. Relative quantification via the ∆∆Ct method returned significantly higher expression levels of the three candidate miRNAs (p < 0.01) in the TBI cases. No difference was detected in the expression levels of any miRNA investigated in the study among the CA, CCA, and CC. Furthermore, the analyzed miRNAs were unrelated to the TBI samples' post-mortem intervals (PMIs). On the contrary, has-miR-124-3p ahashsa-miR-144-3p were significantly correlated (p < 0.01) with the agonal time in TBI deaths. Since the RNA was highly degraded in autoptic FFPE tissues, it was impossible to analyze the mRNA targets of the miRNAs investigated in the present study, highlighting the necessity of standardizing pre-analytical processes even for autopsy tissues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Serena Bonin
- DSM—Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, 34149 Trieste, Italy; (S.B.); (C.M.); (S.S.C.); (M.P.); (M.C.); (E.A.); (P.F.)
| | - Stefano D’Errico
- DSM—Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, 34149 Trieste, Italy; (S.B.); (C.M.); (S.S.C.); (M.P.); (M.C.); (E.A.); (P.F.)
| | - Caterina Medeot
- DSM—Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, 34149 Trieste, Italy; (S.B.); (C.M.); (S.S.C.); (M.P.); (M.C.); (E.A.); (P.F.)
| | - Carlo Moreschi
- DAME—Department of Medical Area, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy;
| | - Solange Sorçaburu Ciglieri
- DSM—Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, 34149 Trieste, Italy; (S.B.); (C.M.); (S.S.C.); (M.P.); (M.C.); (E.A.); (P.F.)
| | - Michela Peruch
- DSM—Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, 34149 Trieste, Italy; (S.B.); (C.M.); (S.S.C.); (M.P.); (M.C.); (E.A.); (P.F.)
| | - Monica Concato
- DSM—Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, 34149 Trieste, Italy; (S.B.); (C.M.); (S.S.C.); (M.P.); (M.C.); (E.A.); (P.F.)
| | - Eros Azzalini
- DSM—Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, 34149 Trieste, Italy; (S.B.); (C.M.); (S.S.C.); (M.P.); (M.C.); (E.A.); (P.F.)
| | - Carlo Previderè
- Department of Public Health, Experimental, and Forensic Medicine, Section of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy;
| | - Paolo Fattorini
- DSM—Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, 34149 Trieste, Italy; (S.B.); (C.M.); (S.S.C.); (M.P.); (M.C.); (E.A.); (P.F.)
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Abuja PM, Pabst D, Bourgeois B, Loibner M, Ulz C, Kufferath I, Fackelmann U, Stumptner C, Kraemer R, Madl T, Zatloukal K. Residual Humidity in Paraffin-Embedded Tissue Reduces Nucleic Acid Stability. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:8010. [PMID: 37175716 PMCID: PMC10178321 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24098010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2023] [Revised: 04/11/2023] [Accepted: 04/26/2023] [Indexed: 05/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Molecular diagnostics in healthcare relies increasingly on genomic and transcriptomic methodologies and requires appropriate tissue specimens from which nucleic acids (NA) of sufficiently high quality can be obtained. Besides the duration of ischemia and fixation type, NA quality depends on a variety of other pre-analytical parameters, such as storage conditions and duration. It has been discussed that the improper dehydration of tissue during processing influences the quality of NAs and the shelf life of fixed tissue. Here, we report on establishing a method for determining the amount of residual water in fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue (fixed by neutral buffered formalin or a non-crosslinking fixative) and its correlation to the performance of NAs in quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analyses. The amount of residual water depended primarily on the fixative type and the dehydration protocol and, to a lesser extent, on storage conditions and time. Moreover, we found that these parameters were associated with the qRT-PCR performance of extracted NAs. Besides the cross-linking of NAs and the modification of nucleobases by formalin, the hydrolysis of NAs by residual water was found to contribute to reduced qRT-PCR performance. The negative effects of residual water on NA stability are not only important for the design and interpretation of research but must also be taken into account in clinical diagnostics where the reanalysis of archived tissue from a primary tumor may be required (e.g., after disease recurrence). We conclude that improving the shelf life of fixed tissue requires meticulous dehydration and dry storage to minimize the degradative influence of residual water on NAs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter M. Abuja
- Diagnostic & Research Centre for Molecular Biomedicine, Institute of Pathology, Medical University of Graz, Neue Stiftingtalstrasse 6, 8010 Graz, Austria
| | - Daniela Pabst
- Diagnostic & Research Centre for Molecular Biomedicine, Institute of Pathology, Medical University of Graz, Neue Stiftingtalstrasse 6, 8010 Graz, Austria
| | - Benjamin Bourgeois
- Gottfried Schatz Research Centre for Cell Signalling, Metabolism and Ageing, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Medical University of Graz, Neue Stiftingtalstrasse 6, 8010 Graz, Austria
- BioTechMed-Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria
| | - Martina Loibner
- Diagnostic & Research Centre for Molecular Biomedicine, Institute of Pathology, Medical University of Graz, Neue Stiftingtalstrasse 6, 8010 Graz, Austria
| | - Christine Ulz
- Diagnostic & Research Centre for Molecular Biomedicine, Institute of Pathology, Medical University of Graz, Neue Stiftingtalstrasse 6, 8010 Graz, Austria
| | - Iris Kufferath
- Diagnostic & Research Centre for Molecular Biomedicine, Institute of Pathology, Medical University of Graz, Neue Stiftingtalstrasse 6, 8010 Graz, Austria
| | - Ulrike Fackelmann
- Diagnostic & Research Centre for Molecular Biomedicine, Institute of Pathology, Medical University of Graz, Neue Stiftingtalstrasse 6, 8010 Graz, Austria
| | - Cornelia Stumptner
- Diagnostic & Research Centre for Molecular Biomedicine, Institute of Pathology, Medical University of Graz, Neue Stiftingtalstrasse 6, 8010 Graz, Austria
| | - Rainer Kraemer
- Berghof Products & Instruments GmbH, 72800 Eningen, Germany
| | - Tobias Madl
- Gottfried Schatz Research Centre for Cell Signalling, Metabolism and Ageing, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Medical University of Graz, Neue Stiftingtalstrasse 6, 8010 Graz, Austria
- BioTechMed-Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria
| | - Kurt Zatloukal
- Diagnostic & Research Centre for Molecular Biomedicine, Institute of Pathology, Medical University of Graz, Neue Stiftingtalstrasse 6, 8010 Graz, Austria
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De Martino E, Medeot C, D'Amico L, Stanta G, Bonin S. Impact of standardization in tissue processing: the performance of different fixatives. N Biotechnol 2022; 71:30-36. [PMID: 35878783 DOI: 10.1016/j.nbt.2022.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2022] [Revised: 07/21/2022] [Accepted: 07/21/2022] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
Abstract
Most tissues in clinical practice are formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded for histological as well as molecular analyses. The reproducibility and uniformity of molecular analyses is strictly dependent on the quality of the biomolecules, which is highly influenced by pre-analytical processes. In this study, the effect of different fixatives was compared, including formalin, Bouin's solution, RCL2® and TAG-1™ fixatives, by stringent application of ISO standards in mouse liver tissue processing, including formalin-free transport of tissues and tissue grossing in a refrigerated environment. The effect of fixatives was studied in terms of nucleic acid quality at the time of tissue processing and after one year of tissue storage at room temperature in the dark. Furthermore, a microcomputed tomography (CT) scan analysis was applied to investigate the paraffin embedding. The results show that the application of ISO standards in tissue processing allows analysis of 400 bases amplicons from RNA and 1000 bases from DNA, even in extracts from formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissues. However, after one year storage at room temperature in the dark, a degradation of the nucleic acids was observed. Nevertheless, extracts can still be analyzed, but for metachronous tests it is highly recommended to repeat the quantitation of housekeeping genes in order to standardize the extent of nucleic acid degradation.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Caterina Medeot
- Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Lorenzo D'Amico
- Department of Physics, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy; Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., Area Science Park, Trieste, Italy
| | - Giorgio Stanta
- Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Serena Bonin
- Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy.
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