High quantities of quality RNA are necessary for many veterinary laboratory tests. Several commercial kits are available for RNA isolation from human whole blood; their resultant RNA yield and purity have not been reported for canine whole blood, to our knowledge. We assessed the performance of 4 RNA extraction kits (RiboPure, TRIzol, RNeasy Protect animal blood, and QIAamp RNA blood mini). Whole blood from a healthy dog was stored in the manufacturer-recommended RNA stabilizing buffer as directed. RNA isolation, including DNase treatment, was performed using each kit’s manufacturer’s protocol. Resultant RNA yield and purity were evaluated using spectrophotometric absorbance, capillary electrophoresis and electropherogram analysis, and a reverse-transcription real-time PCR (RT-rtPCR) assay. The RNeasy Protect animal blood kit extracted the highest, and RiboPure the lowest, concentration of nucleic acid. RNA integrity numbers classified extracted RNA as good quality or better for all kits except RNeasy Protect. All kits had evidence of genomic DNA contamination as assessed by RT-rtPCR. Overall, QIAamp RNA blood mini kit and TRIzol optimized both RNA yield and purity from canine whole blood. These kits extracted high quantities of good quality RNA as evidenced by high RNA integrity numbers and minimal contamination with proteins and solvents.

许多兽医实验室测试都需要大量高质量的RNA。有几种商业试剂盒可用于从人全血中分离RNA。据我们所知，尚未报道它们对犬全血产生的RNA产量和纯度。我们评估了4种RNA提取试剂盒（RiboPure，TRIzol，RNeasy Protect动物血液和QIAamp RNA blood mini）的性能。按照指示，将健康狗的全血储存在制造商推荐的RNA稳定缓冲液中。使用每个试剂盒的制造商规程进行RNA分离，包括DNase处理。使用分光光度法吸光度，毛细管电泳和电泳图谱分析以及逆转录实时荧光定量PCR（RT-rtPCR）分析评估所得的RNA产量和纯度。RNeasy Protect动物血液试剂盒提取的最高，而RiboPure的核酸浓度最低。RNA完整性编号将除RNeasy Protect外的所有试剂盒中提取的RNA归类为质量较好或更好。通过RT-rtPCR评估，所有试剂盒均具有基因组DNA污染的证据。总体而言，QIAamp RNA血液微型试剂盒和TRIzol优化了犬全血的RNA产量和纯度。这些试剂盒可提取大量高质量的RNA，RNA完整性高，对蛋白质和溶剂的污染极小，证明了这一点。