A new mRNA control for lymphocytic activation of NK and T cells

Northern blot analysis is a commonly used technique to monitor the expression of particular genes in naive and activated cell populations. A problem which plagues the study of the regulation of the genes involved in activation by Northern blot analysis is the lack of suitable control RNA probes. Here we describe the use of an activation- and cell cycle-independent cDNA probe isolated from HeLa cells and previously described in human fibroblasts. This gene serves as an excellent control probe for equivalent loading of natural killer (NK) and T cell mRNA samples.