Help with terminology needed - HUMAN WHITE PLASMA or SERUM ? (Feb/06/2006 )
Hello everyone,
I am merely a translator and would highly appreciate your help in telling SERUM and Human WHITE PLASMA apart (if possible, of course). I thought them to be synonyms at first but after consulting a number of sources I am no longer sure ...
Looking forward to your replies.
Xris
I am merely a translator and would highly appreciate your help in telling SERUM and Human WHITE PLASMA apart (if possible, of course). I thought them to be synonyms at first but after consulting a number of sources I am no longer sure ...
Looking forward to your replies.
Xris
According to dictionary.com, "plasma" is the clear, yellowish fluid portion of blood, lymph or intramuscular fluid in which cells are suspended. This differs from "serum" in that it contains fibrin and other soluble clotting elements. Hope that helps.
msm858
I think you've got that backwords msm858. Plasma is the liquid fraction of blood, minus red blood cells, but includes soluble clotting factors. Serum is the liquid fraction of blood, minus red blood cells, and minus soluble clotting factors.
Plasma = no cells, includes soluble clotting factors
Serum = no cells, no soluble clotting factors
Plasma = no cells, includes soluble clotting factors
Serum = no cells, no soluble clotting factors
Maybe that it is wrong...but I quoted it directly from dictionary.com.
msm858
Plasma = no cells, includes soluble clotting factors
Serum = no cells, no soluble clotting factors
Hi,
I'm in a medical technologist program, and what I was taught plasma contains water, electrolytes, gases, fats, proteins clotting factors, and glucose. It is the when blood has NOT been clotted, and contains a clotting factor called fibrinogen.
Serum has the same contents has plasma except it does NOT have the clotting factor, fibrinogen.
Hope this helps!
so if a test tube of blood sample was left to stand, the top portion tt was found would it be serum or the plasma?? Is serum= plasma, as in when blood start to clot, the liquid tt was present is called plasma, after the blood clotted, that liquid would be called serum, cos the clotting agent has been used up??
CoNfuSed....
CoNfuSed....
If you let your blood sample stand, it will clot, and you will obtain serum.
If, instead of letting your blood clot, you would have heparinized it, you could obtain plasma by centrifuging your tube, and keeping the supernatant.
so if a test tube of blood sample was left to stand, the top portion tt was found would it be serum or the plasma?? Is serum= plasma, as in when blood start to clot, the liquid tt was present is called plasma, after the blood clotted, that liquid would be called serum, cos the clotting agent has been used up??
CoNfuSed....
If you let your blood sample stand, it will clot, and you will obtain serum.
If, instead of letting your blood clot, you would have heparinized it, you could obtain plasma by centrifuging your tube, and keeping the supernatant.
I used to work in a blood sample processing lab and that's essentially how we obtained our serum and plasma. The serum tubes had no additional chemicals just a wax plug and when you centrifuge it the blood clots and the serum seperates out. The plasma tube was heparinized and when you spun down the tube you got a seperation between plasma, lymphocytes, and granulocytes (or that's essentially how it worked).
Back to the original definitions, BOTH msm858 and statler were right, it was just the way the text was written 
This (plasma) differs from "serum" in that it (plasma) contains fibrin and other soluble clotting elements. Hope that helps.