Abstract
Molecular tools are increasingly applied in epidemiological studies to unravel the relationship between environmental exposures and disease (1). DNA is required for analyses of genetic factors, such as polymorphisms, but currently used specimens, such as lymphocytes and buccal cells, have disadvantages related to collection, transport, storage, and processing of samples. A relatively infrequently used source of DNA that may overcome these problems is nail material. Human toenails have been collected in several epidemiological studies, predominantly for determination of trace elements as biomarkers for the intake of these compounds (2). Until now, none of these epidemiological studies have applied human toenails as a source of DNA. We investigated whether toenail material collected 20 years ago in the Netherlands Cohort Study on Diet and Cancer (NLCS) (3) (n = 120 852) could be used as a source of DNA for analyses of multiple genetic polymorphisms. Approximately 90 000 participants provided toenail clippings (on average, 80 mg per participant) (2). We optimized a protocol for DNA isolation from ∼10 mg toenail material, based on the method of Cline et al. (4), and tested the …
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