MOLECULAR TEMPORAL BONE PATHOLOGY - IV - ANALYSIS OF DNA-TEMPLATE LENGTH USING MITOCHONDRIAL PCR PRIMERS

The focus of this study was to identify, via molecular biology techniq ues, the length of the DNA templates present in individual archival ce lloidin-embedded human temporal bone sections. Earlier studies have su ggested that the maximum template length present in these tissues is o n the order of 471 base pair (bp). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amp lification of 92 bp, 121 bp, 471 bp, and 609 bp regions of mitochondri al DNA (mtDNA), extracted from single archival celloidin-embedded huma n temporal bone sections, was used to assess the length of the templat e DNA extracted. These data are crucial to determine the limits of app lying PCR technology to amplify specific genomic DNA targets located w ithin the human inner ear. The results described should be of value to those investigators extracting DNA from archival individual human tem poral bone sections for polymerase chain reaction assays of specific g enetic alterations or infectious agents associated with temporal bone pathologies.