. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Mar 5.

Published in final edited form as: Exp Dermatol. 2017 Mar 1;26(4):359–367. doi: 10.1111/exd.13249

TABLE 1.

Current methods used to profile miRNA

Methods	Pros	Cons
Northern blotting	Verify and confirm miRNA	Unable to perform high throughput detection
	High specificity	Unable to perform high throughput detection
		Low sensitivity

qRT-PCR	Quantitative analysis of low miRNA expression	Unable to perform high throughput detection
	Verify and confirm miRNA	Unable to identify new miRNA
	High sensitivity and dynamic range

Microarray	High throughput	Low quality, stability and repeatability
		Non-quantitative
		Low specificity
		Unable to identify new miRNA

Small RNA sequencing	High specificity Identify new miRNA	Complex computation analysis
		Inefficient and high expense