Serum or Plasma: what are their uses, and which is better for research purposes?

Serum and blood are two of the most important components of blood. While both are composed of the liquid constituents of the connective tissue known as blood, they differ greatly and have different applications in medical study.

We know that blood extraction and collection is a common routine, one which enables us to:

• Understand and determine the general health of an individual.
• Track and monitor diseases,
• Measure the effects of therapeutic treatments or interventions and
• Gauge the impact of lifestyle and nutrition.

The most often taken blood samples are plasma and serum, which reflect what remains after the blood cells are removed. Blood plasma and serum include a plethora of signs that can provide critical diagnostic information as well as insight into systemic health.

Helvetica Health Care (HHC), a well-known supplier of high-quality blood plasma and serum samples, explains the differences between plasma and serum, their importance, and their applications in medical research to help you choose the right samples to produce accurate and reliable results.

What is blood plasma?

Plasma is the liquid part of blood that contains fibrinogen, which acts as a blood clotting agent. A centrifuge is used to extract both blood plasma and serum. Plasma is the component of the blood that is acquired before it coagulates. In other words, when an anticoagulant is introduced to prevent clotting, plasma is the remaining liquid component.

Plasma makes up more than half of the entire volume of blood. Blood plasma serves an important function in the human body because it prevents excessive blood loss during injury and contains over 90% water. Proteins that transport important nutrients such as salts, glucose, and lipids to various regions of the body are among the compounds delivered by blood plasma. In addition, plasma regulates body temperature and blood pressure.

Plasma donations can be crucial in treating individuals who have lost a significant amount of blood, and hence plasma, as a result of a medical operation or a serious accident. Given the vital activities of blood plasma, a considerable loss can have major consequences for a person’s health.

What is serum?

Serum is the liquid part of blood that remains after it has been allowed to clot freely. Serum predominates over plasma in the blood. Serum, as opposed to plasma, is commonly employed in blood research, analysis, and diagnostics.

Below we list the main differences between serum and plasma, which will help you understand them better.

What are the uses of blood plasma and serum in medical research?

Both serum and plasma are used extensively in medical research and for diagnostic purposes for testing biomarkers indicative of certain serious health conditions.

The use of serum and plasma samples for study is especially appealing due to their low invasiveness and the wealth of biological data that can be uncovered in both healthy and diseased states. Biomarkers derived from serum and plasma samples are being researched and used in more clinical settings. These advancements can help us better understand and treat a variety of diseases.

Which is better for research?

The choice of these two important blood components is determined by the requirements of the research assay or specialised application performed, as well as the technology employed in diverse scientific disciplines.

Serum may be preferable since blood contains a larger concentration of it than plasma and because it does not require extra compounds such as EDTA to prevent blood samples from clotting. Furthermore, serum has higher sensitivity than plasma, allowing for the detection of more biomarkers when analysing different phenotypic groups and sub-groups.

Plasma samples, on the other hand, are more efficient and exact in detecting metabolite results, with improved consistency between samples. Plasma is typically used extensively in proteomic approaches. Plasma is widely utilised for blood transfusion in clinical settings because it includes anticoagulants that prevent clot formation. People suffering from chronic conditions such as haemophilia, autoimmune diseases, and liver disease may benefit from plasma therapy.

Both plasma and serum include antibodies that are widely used to create immunity against viral diseases such as the recently discovered Covid-19 virus, Ebola, and anthrax. Similarly, several monoclonal antibodies have been isolated and identified from serum or plasma for a variety of therapeutic uses, including the treatment of inflammatory illnesses such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

Plasma taken from young donors has shown therapeutic benefits in persons with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, according to findings from early-phase clinical trials.

By this token, plasma and serum have a fundamental role in medical research and diagnostics, which extends to the development of therapeutic treatments to combat a range of health concerns, from metabolism to cancer.

Usually, experts recommend using plasma and serum samples to understand how each behaves to the application, whether in the running of an assay, performing a diagnostic test or contributing a cell culture. You may receive false results when only one sample has been used.

Sample discrepancies in serum and plasma collection are another problem that lab specialists are often confronted with because they lead to inconsistent outcomes. Approximating the quality of the plasma or serum sample in some applications using certain markers is possible.

HHC specialises in supplying a range of clinical/biological samples with needed characterisation, special material including POSITIVE HUMAN BLOOD, PLASMA and SERUM, animal material and BIOPSY SAMPLES.

Thanks to our wide network, we can source material in more than 50 countries worldwide and provide access to a network of clinical laboratories, transfusion centres, reference centres and pathology laboratories. We can also offer a prospective sample collection based on the required parameter and specifications.

We also have access to large volumes of high-grade Human Serum, pooled or individual, and negative plasma in EDTA or Citrate.

ZEPTOGEL and SCRUBBED NYLON FIBERS are used to separate and isolate human lymphocytes from whole blood samples. Lymphocytes prepared by these methods are viable cell suspensions for tissue culture and enzymatic, biochemical and immunologic studies employing small volumes of blood.

Please read some of our previous articles to learn more about blood plasma and serum. To learn more about our products, please visit our website: https://www.h-h-c.com