RNA Degradation

[klennon at acs.bu.edu]

I am posting this letter in hopes of obtaining advice which I can pass on to 
another member of my dept that doesn't have net access. He is currently doing 
RNA isolations from tissue samples taken from animals that are under 
anesthesia. He puts the animals under, takes the sample, and puts the sample 
immediately in liquid nitrogen. He finds that he gets such degradation of his 
total RNAs that ribosomal RNA is not even visible on formaldehyde gels!!! 
Since I work with yeast, I am of little help to him. Can anyone suggest a way 
to improve his results? My lab does some total RNA isolations from hamster 
tissue, but they kill the animal very quickly and do not have any problems 
with degradation. . .does the anesthesia cause RNAse activity to increase?

Thanks in advance.
klennon at bu.edu