RNA integrity number

The RNA integrity number (RIN) is an algorithm for assigning integrity values to RNA measurements.

The integrity of RNA is a major concern for gene expression studies and traditionally has been evaluated using the 28S to 18S rRNA ratio, a method that has been shown to be inconsistent. The RIN algorithm was devised to overcome this issue. The RIN algorithm is applied to electrophoretic RNA measurements and based on a combination of different features that contribute information about the RNA integrity to provide a more robust universal measure.