• Question from:Gloria Kesting

I am wanting to know if it is possible to extract DNA from bed linen which has been washed? (in cold water if that makes a difference)
I would be very grateful for any information regarding this.

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  • University of Bristol
  • Posts: 2,464

The science of forensic and molecular pathology has advanced enormously and DNA from blood or semen can be extracted and then amplified in tiny quantities. That said washing sheets would make that much more difficult and it would depend then on the amount of body fluid that had soaked into the sheet, the temperature of the wash and the washing powder used.

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  • University of Exeter
  • Posts: 577

There have actually been a number of studies looking at recovering DNA from laundered clothing since this can obviously be important for forensic applications. It is certainly possible (e.g., one can often recover sperm cells and extract DNA from semen after washing at 40C at least) but from a technical point of view it is not the preferred way to receive a sample. It wouldn't surprise me it was beyond the capabilities of many labs offering commercial DNA typing services.