BACKGROUND Gene expression profiling of tumors is a successful tool for the discovery of new cancer biomarkers and potential targets for the development of new therapeutic strategies. Reliable profiling is preferably performed on fresh frozen (FF) tissues in which the quality of nucleic acids is better preserved than in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) material. However, since snap-freez...

BACKGROUND MicroRNAs (miRs) are non-coding RNA molecules involved in post-transcriptional regulation, with diverse functions in tissue development, differentiation, cell proliferation and apoptosis. miRs may be less prone to degradation during formalin fixation, facilitating miR expression studies in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue. RESULTS Our study demonstrates that the TaqMa...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs responsible for fine-tuning of gene expression at post-transcriptional level. The alterations in miRNA expression levels profoundly affect human health and often lead to the development of severe diseases. Currently, high throughput analyses, such as microarray and deep sequencing, are performed in order to identify miRNA biomarkers, using archival p...

BACKGROUND We have developed a gene expression assay (Whole-Genome DASL), capable of generating whole-genome gene expression profiles from degraded samples such as formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We demonstrated a similar level of sensitivity in gene detection between matched fresh-frozen (FF) and FFPE samples, with the number and overlap of ...

This study was performed to evaluate RNA extraction and gene expression analysis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens stored for more than 20 years by quantitative PCR (qPCR) and DNA microarrays. Long-term preserved FFPE materials enable large retrospective studies correlating molecular features with therapeutic response and clinical ...

microRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding small RNAs that regulate gene expression at the translational level by mainly interacting with 3' UTRs of their target mRNAs. Archived formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens represent excellent resources for biomarker discovery. Currently there is a lack of systematic analysis on the stability of miRNAs and optimized conditions for expression analysis...

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) may be associated with the response or toxicity to different types of treatment. Although SNP analysis is usually performed on DNA from peripheral blood, formalin fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue is often used for retrospective studies. We analyzed VEGF (-2578C>A, -1498C>T, -1154G>A, -634C>G, +936C>T) and eNOS (+894G>T, -786T>C, VNTR (variable number ...

Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue specimens represent a potential valuable source of samples for clinical research. Since these specimens are banked in hospital archives, large cohorts of samples can be collected in short periods of time which can all be linked with a patients' clinical history. Therefore, the use of FFPE tissue in protein biomarker discovery studies gains interest...

The ability to extract RNA and prepare RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) libraries from Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded (FFPE) tissues allows researchers to identify and validate new biomarkers of disease onset, progression, and therapy resistance. However, the typically poor quality of RNA derived from FFPE samples has previously limited use of this tissue source as a resource for transcriptome profil...

MicroRNAs regulate several aspects of tumorigenesis and cancer progression. Most cancer tissues are archived formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE). While microRNAs are a more stable form of RNA thought to withstand FFPE-processing and degradation there is only limited evidence for the latter assumption. We examined whether microRNA profiling can be successfully conducted on FFPE cancer ti...