Theoretical considerations for the application of competitive polymerase chain reaction to the quantitation of a low abundance mRNA: estrogen receptor.

The necessary theoretical considerations for the development of a correct quantitative analysis of a low abundance messenger RNA (mRNA), estrogen receptor mRNA, by competitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are presented together with a series of experimental data. When compared to other methodologies currently utilized for RNA quantitation, this PCR application proved to be a very reliable, rapid and sensitive method. Furthermore, the PCR-based quantitative method described is of particular interest since it does not require the use of radiolabeled compounds.