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. 2014 Oct 24;1(2):70-4.
doi: 10.1159/000368347. eCollection 2014 Aug-Dec.

Michel's Transport Medium as an Alternative to Liquid Nitrogen for PCR Analysis of Skin Biopsy Specimens

Logeina Boraiy  1 , Lionel Fontao  1
Affiliations

Michel's Transport Medium as an Alternative to Liquid Nitrogen for PCR Analysis of Skin Biopsy Specimens

Logeina Boraiy et al. Dermatopathology (Basel). .

Abstract

Formalin fixation and paraffin embedding are standard procedures for histopathological diagnosis and allow long-term archiving of tissue specimens. The cross-linking properties of formalin cause fragmentation of nucleic acids and reduce the sensitivity of PCR analysis. Michel's medium is a well-established transport medium used by dermatologists for biopsy transport to maintain tissue-fixed immunoreactants prior to direct immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy. Here we report that Michel's medium also allows short-term preservation of DNA for PCR analysis and permits amplification of amplicons larger than 1 kb. Therefore, Michel's medium appears to be a reserve medium for performing PCR when no other samples are available.

Keywords: DNA; Michel's medium; PCR; Skin biopsy.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Agarose gel electrophoresis of PCR amplicons after amplification of the HBB gene and COL1A1 gene (COL) from DNA prepared from skin biopsies transported in liquid nitrogen (N2), Michel's transport medium (MM) or normal saline (NaCl). 40 ng (lanes 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11) or 8 ng (lanes 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12) of total DNA was used as template in PCR. Lane 13 = Negative control.
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