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Title: Performance in omics analyses of blood samples in long-term storage: opportunities for the exploitation of existing biobanks in environmental health research.

Authors: Hebels, Dennie G A J; Georgiadis, Panagiotis; Keun, Hector C; Athersuch, Toby J; Vineis, Paolo; Vermeulen, Roel; Portengen, Lützen; Bergdahl, Ingvar A; Hallmans, Göran; Palli, Domenico; Bendinelli, Benedetta; Krogh, Vittorio; Tumino, Rosario; Sacerdote, Carlotta; Panico, Salvatore; Kleinjans, Jos C S; de Kok, Theo M C M; Smith, Martyn T; Kyrtopoulos, Soterios A; EnviroGenomarkers Project Consortium

Published In Environ Health Perspect, (2013 Apr)

Abstract: The suitability for omic analysis of biosamples collected in previous decades and currently stored in biobanks is unknown.We evaluated the influence of handling and storage conditions of blood-derived biosamples on transcriptomic, epigenomic (CpG methylation), plasma metabolomic [UPLC-ToFMS (ultra performance liquid chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry)], and wide-target proteomic profiles.We collected fresh blood samples without RNA preservative in heparin, EDTA, or citrate and held them at room temperature for ≤ 24 hr before fractionating them into buffy coat, erythrocytes, and plasma and freezing the fractions at -80oC or in liquid nitrogen. We developed methodology for isolating RNA from the buffy coats and conducted omic analyses. Finally, we analyzed analogous samples from the EPIC-Italy and Northern Sweden Health and Disease Study biobanks.Microarray-quality RNA could be isolated from buffy coats (including most biobank samples) that had been frozen within 8 hr of blood collection by thawing the samples in RNA preservative. Different anticoagulants influenced the metabolomic, proteomic, and to a lesser extent transcriptomic profiles. Transcriptomic profiles were most affected by the delay (as little as 2 hr) before blood fractionation, whereas storage temperature had minimal impact. Effects on metabolomic and proteomic profiles were noted in samples processed ≥ 8 hr after collection, but no effects were due to storage temperature. None of the variables examined significantly influenced the epigenomic profiles. No systematic influence of time-in-storage was observed in samples stored over a period of 13-17 years.Most samples currently stored in biobanks are amenable to meaningful omics analysis, provided that they satisfy collection and storage criteria defined in this study.

PubMed ID: 23384616 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: Anticoagulants/chemistry; Biological Specimen Banks*; Biomarkers/blood; Environmental Health/methods; Gene Expression Profiling/methods*; Genomics/methods*; Humans; Metabolomics/methods*; RNA/analysis*; Specimen Handling*; Time Factors

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