whole blood for dna methylation? - (Jan/10/2006 )

need a bit of advice if anyone can help. have done all my methylation experiments on urine and tissue dna. my boss now wants me to repeat on 'blood' dna in prostate cancer. all reports in literature extract dna from serum or plasma but my boss wants me to extract from whole blood. is there any technical reason why people don't tend to use 'whole blood' or is serum/plasma just better? cheers if you can help

I have used leukcocyte DNA while troubleshooting my HPLC system for methylation analysis and had no dramas.

I can't help you out in regards to if there is a scientific reason for not using whole blood however.

I have also uses leucocyte DNA in methylation successfully - i always thought plasma/serum was preffered cos its easier and less messy to actually extract the DNA - cant be sure on that one though...