For DNA testing, which tissue sample is taken in an autopsy-

blood and splenic tissues are the best specimen for the DNA analysis and should be frozen if there is leikely to be any delay before reaching the laboratory,fluid, swabs ,hair.other organs( liver, brain kidney and muscle) however also acceptable. With blood samples, a good HMWDNA recovery from all the bodies investigated was obtained during the first week following the death. In each case, the quality and quantity of the DNA were good enough to realizeDNA fingerprints with the SLP system (data not shown). In liver samples, only bodies of postmoem ages ranging from 1 to 7 days allowed us to obtain HMWDNA. HMWDNA was extracted from kidney samples up to one month after death, but the yield of DNA decreased rapidly, becoming very low beyond a period of one week. Past this period, we did not succeed in obtaining DNA fingerprints from DNA extracted. The extraction of DNA from lymph nodes was satisfactory up to one week. Over a postmoem period of 7 days, the DNA was degraded and unsuitable for blotting. HMWDNA was purified from spleen samples up to one week after death and the DNA present in hea tissue or in muscle cells was stable up to one month postmoem period, allowing us to perform DNA fingerprinting. Finally, out of all tissues tested, the brain coexappeared to be the most stable tissue for DNA recovery, even after long postmoem periods." Ref:MEDSCAPE