Plasma is the liquid portion of blood, making up about 55% of the total volume. It contains 90% water and is responsible for carrying proteins, nutrients, hormones, and antibodies throughout the body.
Plasma also functions as a waste disposal fluid by transporting cells’ waste. To collect plasma, an anticoagulant like EDTA is added to whole blood before centrifugation.
Definition
Serum vs plasma is a major difference in the study of blood, which plays an important role in health and disease. Plasma is the liquid portion of blood that contains the clotting factors, water, and platelets.
Serum, on the other hand, is a fluid that is extracted after clotting has taken place. It contains proteins, electrolytes, antibodies, antigens, and hormones that do not participate in blood clotting.
Moreover, the serum does not contain fibrinogen.
A straw-colored, fluid-like substance, plasma separates from whole blood when it is clotted and then centrifuged. This removes the clot, and the cells are separated from the light liquid.
A number of studies have reported metabolite differences between serum and plasma for various analytes. Despite this, most of these differences are not clinically meaningful.
Composition
Plasma and serum are the two major components of blood. They have important roles in the body and are used to measure a variety of conditions.
Plasma is a liquid component of the blood that contains red and white cells, and nutrients like glucose and oxygen. It also contains clotting factors that prevent excessive bleeding following injury.
Serum is a liquid component of the blood that lacks clotting factor and red and white blood cells. It is derived from centrifuging coagulated blood with anticoagulants like EDTA or Heparin.
Plasma contains 90 percent water with antibodies, clotting factors, and other substances such as electrolytes, lipids, and proteins required for maintaining the body. It also contains a protein called albumin, which transports hormones and fatty acids, buffers pH, and maintains osmotic pressures.
Methods
Blood plasma is the liquid portion of the blood that contains clotting factors. Serum, on the other hand, is a liquid that has not been coagulated by a blood-clotting agent or a special chemical called an anticoagulant.
A major difference between the two is that serum contains fibrinogen, a clotting factor that is absent in plasma. This is one of the main reasons that they are used in different types of testing.
Among many other things, serum consists of a mixture of proteins, electrolytes, antibodies, hormones, and other substances. It also contains salts and other enzymes that are essential for the functioning of your body.
For many biomarker analysis methods, the serum has been the substrate of choice for many years. However, this has changed in recent years with the introduction of blood collection tubes that have separating gels to separate blood cells and prevent contamination.
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Applications
Serum and plasma are liquid components of blood that contain nutrients, electrolytes, proteins, hormones, antibodies, and fibrinogen. They also carry waste materials from different body parts and cells and are important for transporting oxygen throughout the body.
Both serum and plasma are used for laboratory analysis but the choice is determined by the research purpose, sample availability, and laboratory policy. It is also influenced by the drug concentration, which may be higher in plasma than in red blood cells.
Many hospital and commercial laboratories now use plasma samples for a variety of chemical tests, including those for the treatment of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Plasma samples have several advantages over serum, including the elimination of delays in sample processing while waiting for clotting to complete, laboratory technical issues associated with fibrin formation, repeat sample collection, and patient care problems caused by incompletely clotted specimens.