You may have heard that human serum is one of the most important tools in today’s laboratory, but let’s look at why. What is human serum? Human serum is a clear bodily fluid that is obtained from whole blood. It is the substance that remains when a blood sample is centrifuged to separate out the red and white blood cells, platelets, and clotting factors. (Another way to think of serum is as the clear liquid that remains after blood has fully clotted around a fresh scrape.) Serum contains antibodies, hormones, enzymes, vitamins, sugars, fats, and proteins. Plasma is similar but different: it is serum plus clotting factors. Serum is preferred over plasma in many clinical laboratory applications because the clotting factors can cause interference in sensitive tests . . .
Published on Sanguine BioScience’s research blog on January 6, 2022
