Bahare Tabanifar - Dept. of Microbiology, School of Biology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
Rasoul Salehi - Dept. of Genetics and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences,Isfahan, Iran
Ezat Asgarani - Dept. of Genetics, School of Biology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
Mehri Faghihi - Dept. of Pathology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

Background and Objective: Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues are a valuable source of DNA for molecular studies. We designed and optimized an efficient procedure for DNA extractionfrom formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissues. Materials and Methods: Seventy three blocks of cervical paraffin-embedded tissues wereinvestigated. DNA was extracted using 45 minutes boiling in alkaline solution together with 10 beads of Chelex-20, followed by phenol-chloroform extraction and alcohol precipitation. Results: This method produced DNA suitable for amplification using primers specific for humanSMN and β globin genes in 98.63% and 82.2% of samples respectively. We also detected human papillomavirus DNA in 58.33% of appropriate samples.Conclusion: This procedure provides simple and efficient method for recovery of amplifiable genomic and viral DNA from paraffin wax embedded tissues.

DNA, Paraffin Embedding, Polymerase Chain Reaction