Plasma and Serum

Q: What is the difference between plasma and serum?

Answer:

Plasma - is the liquid portion of normal unclotted blood. Plasma consists of 90% water and 10% of elements, antibodies, clotting factors, and other proteins.

Serum - is the clear liquid that can be separated from clotted blood. Serum lacks the formed elements and the clotting factors but retains the electrolytes and soluble proteins, including antibodies. The serum is a Latin word that refers to "whey", the watery liquid that separates from the curds in the process of cheese-making.

#hematology

References:

1. Yu Z, Kastenmüller G, He Y, Belcredi P, Möller G, Prehn C, Mendes J, Wahl S, Roemisch-Margl W, Ceglarek U, Polonikov A, Dahmen N, Prokisch H, Xie L, Li Y, Wichmann HE, Peters A, Kronenberg F, Suhre K, Adamski J, Illig T, Wang-Sattler R. Differences between human plasma and serum metabolite profiles. PLoS One. 2011;6(7):e21230. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0021230. Epub 2011 Jul 8. PMID: 21760889; PMCID: PMC3132215.

2. Liu X, Hoene M, Wang X, Yin P, Häring HU, Xu G, Lehmann R. Serum or plasma, what is the difference? Investigations to facilitate the sample material selection decision making process for metabolomics studies and beyond. Anal Chim Acta. 2018 Dec 11;1037:293-300. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2018.03.009. Epub 2018 Mar 21. PMID: 30292305.