expression and these variables thus appears to be transcript specific rather than an overall degradation of RNA (Harish et al., 2013). Several precautions should be taken to reduce confounding factors that impact RNA quality. For example, it has been suggested that tissue with a pH < 6.5 should be excluded from microarray analysis (Li et al., 2004). Long postmortem intervals and severe agonal states (e.g. brain trauma, stroke) should also be excluded, and histopathological criteria should be used to provide evidence that the agonal state conforms to accepted guidelines.
