Modified salting-out method for DNA isolation from newborn cord blood nucleated cells

The present work describes modification of a widely used salting-out procedure to rapidly extract DNA suitable for PCR, using the ARMS method to amplify a target sequence in the beta-globin gene. The salting-out DNA extraction procedure did not completely remove or decrease the presence of inhibitors to PCR in a considerable number of cord blood samples. By introducing a simple phenol/chloroform step, before ethanol precipitation of the nucleic acid, to certain samples, we were able to eliminate or substantially reduce the presence of inhibitors to PCR without having to re-extract the samples.