Hi, Need Help!
why is serum most commonly used as an antibody source, rather than plasma or blood?
what is the difference between a blood clot and a plasma clot? i thought that plasma has no fibrin and clotting factors, so can it actually clot?
Thanks
Hi Sachin
Plasma / serum has about 8-18mg/ml antibodies. This along with Human Serum Albumin qccounts for almost 70 to 85% of total plasma proteins. Blood has Corpuscles which has no influence on antibodies but make the isolation process multistep. Plasma on other hand has proteins for clotting and that again are irrelevant for antibody concentration. But as general protocol it is advisable to let the blood clot and get more enriched antibodies from serum after removal of corpuscles and clotting factors. Regarding your second query, blood clot has corpuscles involved ( platelets and RBCs most often) and occasionally PMNLand ither WBCs in small proportion. Plasma clots in contrast are purely of fibrin and clottung factors that is induced by allowing plasma to clot. This usually is the best method for collecting serum because sometimes, blood clotting can also induce hemolysis of RBCs.