KB004943: What RIN is Required for Successful Microarrays and/or qPCR Experiments? - 2100 Expert Software 

RIN allows obtaining an assessment of the integrity of RNA, comparing RNA sample quality and ensuring repeatability of experiments. For example, if RNA with a certain RIN is suitable for a microarray experiment, then RNA with the same RIN can always be used in similar experiments based on the same organism/tissue/extraction method. RIN cannot tell a scientist ahead of time whether an experiment will work or not. It is always required to perform verification prior to the experiments. For example, RIN 5 might not work for microarray experiments, but might work well for an appropriate RT-PCR experiment. Also, an RIN that might be good for 3’ amplification might not work for 5' amplification.