Urine collection and stabilisation

Urine Conditioning Buffer™ (UCB) from Zymo Research is a DNA and RNA stabiliser that enables storage and transport of urine samples at ambient temperature. Compatible with any urine collection device and with no need for refrigeration or specialised equipment, UCB inhibits microbial growth and preserves nucleic acid integrity to maintain the urine microbiome profile at the time of collection. Nucleic acids can be isolated directly from UCB, which is compatible with most DNA and RNA purification kits.

Benefits of using UCB
• Effectively preserves DNA & RNA in urine at ambient temperatures
• Facilitates pelleting of both cellular & cell-free nucleic acids from large volume urine samples
• Inhibits microbial growth during long-term (cold-free) storage of urine samples

UCB provides superior preservation vs. conventional methods

Urine (with or without UCB) was preserved using different storage conditions: room temperature (RT), -20⁰C and -80⁰C. HeLa cells were spiked into urine before starting the RNA experiment. After two weeks of storage, total DNA (yellow) and total RNA (green) were purified. Corresponding fold change of preserved nucleic acids was obtained from qPCR analysis. Experiment was performed in technical duplicates.

UCB prevents microbial growth at ambient temperature

Urine was stored with and without UCB™ for six days. On day six, microbial colony formation was determined by plating 500 µl urine on LB agar, followed by incubation at 37⁰C overnight.

Applications
• Next-generation sequencing
• qPCR
• Microarray

Material available for download
Urine Conditioning Buffer protocol
Urine Conditioning Buffer SDS