Detection of miRNA signals in compromised RNA samples

The aim of these experiments was to clarify the origin of increased expression signals of certain miRNAs in degrading tissues, we found in a previous study. We generated the following RNA samples from liver tissue of three mice (biological replicates) to measure the influence of RNA degradation and DNA contamination on miRNA expression profiles using Agilent microarrays: i) undegraded total RNA including small RNAs without potential DNA contamination, ii) naturally degraded total RNA including small RNAs without potential DNA contamination, iii) undegraded total RNA including small RNAs with potential DNA contamination, iv) naturally degraded total RNA including small RNAs with potential DNA contamination v) undegraded total RNA depleted of small RNAs, vi) partially, in vitro degraded RNA from total RNA depleted of small RNAs, vii) fully degraded, in vitro degraded RNA from total RNA depleted of small RNAs.