RNA isolation from human skin tissues for colorimetric differential display

High-quality RNA is essential when analyzing expression patterns of tissues by the differential display technique. However, the isolation of intact RNA can be very difficult when tissues are used that contain many RNAses or that are hard to homogenize (e.g. skin samples). We describe an improved protocol for the extraction of high-quality RNA of snap-frozen biopsies from skin tissues that works in a reproducible and reliable manner. In addition, we developed a simplified non-radioactive differential display technique using RNA from small amounts of skin samples.