Recovery of RNA from flow‐sorted fixed cells

Abstract

We describe a method for the preparation of RNA from ethanol‐fixed cells, allowing analysis of the RNA from cells “frozen” in a given physiological state. This technique may have important applications in experiments which require prolonged cell manipulations beforre RNA preparation, such as investigations of cell‐cycle‐regulated gene exprression, which require the preparation of cells for cell‐cycle flow analysis, and even for long‐term cell sorting. It eliminates all the inconveniences associated with the use of fresh cells, and allows cell‐cycle biologists to couple flow cytometry methodology with the advancing techniques of molecular biology. Copyright © 1990 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.