Accurate and precise nucleic-acid quantification is crucial for clinical and diagnostic decisions, as overestimation or underestimation can lead to misguided treatment of a disease or incorrect labelling of the products. Digital PCR is one of the best tools for absolute nucleic-acid copy-number determination. However, digital PCR needs to be well characterised in terms of accuracy and sources of uncertainty. With droplet digital PCR, discrepancies between the droplet volume assigned by the manufacturer and measured by independent laboratories have already been shown in previous studies. In the present study, we report on the results of an inter-laboratory comparison of different methods for droplet volume determination that is based on optical microscopy imaging and is traceable to the International System of Units. This comparison was conducted on the same DNA material, with the examination of the influence of parameters such as droplet generators, supermixes, operators, inter-cartridge and intra-cartridge variability, and droplet measuring protocol. The mean droplet volume was measured using a QX200™ AutoDG™ Droplet Digital™ PCR system and two QX100™ Droplet Digital™ PCR systems. The data show significant volume differences between these two systems, as well as significant differences in volume when different supermixes are used. We also show that both of these droplet generator systems produce droplets with significantly lower droplet volumes (13.1%, 15.9%, respectively) than stated by the manufacturer and previously measured by other laboratories. This indicates that to ensure precise quantification, the droplet volumes should be assessed for each system.

Droplet volume variability as a critical factor for accuracy of absolute quantification using droplet digital PCR / Bogožalec Košir, Alexandra; Divieto, Carla; Pavšič, Jernej; Pavarelli, Stefano; Dobnik, David; Dreo, Tanja; Bellotti, Roberto; Sassi, MARIA PAOLA; Žel, Jana. - In: ANALYTICAL AND BIOANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY. - ISSN 1618-2642. - 409:28(2017), pp. 6689-6697. [10.1007/s00216-017-0625-y]

Droplet volume variability as a critical factor for accuracy of absolute quantification using droplet digital PCR

Carla Divieto;Stefano Pavarelli;Roberto Bellotti;Maria Paola Sassi;
2017

Abstract

Accurate and precise nucleic-acid quantification is crucial for clinical and diagnostic decisions, as overestimation or underestimation can lead to misguided treatment of a disease or incorrect labelling of the products. Digital PCR is one of the best tools for absolute nucleic-acid copy-number determination. However, digital PCR needs to be well characterised in terms of accuracy and sources of uncertainty. With droplet digital PCR, discrepancies between the droplet volume assigned by the manufacturer and measured by independent laboratories have already been shown in previous studies. In the present study, we report on the results of an inter-laboratory comparison of different methods for droplet volume determination that is based on optical microscopy imaging and is traceable to the International System of Units. This comparison was conducted on the same DNA material, with the examination of the influence of parameters such as droplet generators, supermixes, operators, inter-cartridge and intra-cartridge variability, and droplet measuring protocol. The mean droplet volume was measured using a QX200™ AutoDG™ Droplet Digital™ PCR system and two QX100™ Droplet Digital™ PCR systems. The data show significant volume differences between these two systems, as well as significant differences in volume when different supermixes are used. We also show that both of these droplet generator systems produce droplets with significantly lower droplet volumes (13.1%, 15.9%, respectively) than stated by the manufacturer and previously measured by other laboratories. This indicates that to ensure precise quantification, the droplet volumes should be assessed for each system.
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
216_2017_Article_625.pdf

accesso aperto

Descrizione: Articolo principale
Tipologia: final published article (publisher’s version)
Licenza: Creative Commons
Dimensione 551.66 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
551.66 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11696/59967
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 67
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 61
social impact