Fig. 1.

Overview of the experimental series. Arrows show the flow of the experiment: tissue samples were collected from goats, homogenised using two different methods, and ribonucleic acid (RNA) was isolated from each homogenate by four different techniques. RNA yield and purity was determined by NanoDrop. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to determine the quality and quantity of mRNA transcripts for the gene expression of type II collagen and aggrecan. Numbers in boxes show the different comparisons between the different RNA isolation kits.(1: RNA yield and purity compared for the four different kits.2: Comparison of the two homogenisation methods, i.e. MagNA Lyser and Freezer Mill. 3: Gene expression analysis used to compare the different RNA isolation kits.) (18S rRNA, 18S ribosomal RNA; UBC, Ubiquitin C; YWHAZ, Tyrosine 3-monooxygenase; RIN, RNA integrity number.)