Plasma and Serum

RBC (red blood cells), WBC (white blood cells), plasma, and serum are the main components of blood. The primary components of blood are plasma and serum, which are regularly utilized in blood group test procedures to determine the patient’s blood group.

Plasma

Plasma is the component of your blood that is available in abundant quantities. It accounts for almost half (about 55 percent) of its total material. Plasma is a pale yellow liquid. It separates itself from the blood. Plasma mainly is known to transport water, ion particles, and a few types of enzymes.

Blood plasma is the yellow liquid part of the blood that ordinarily suspends the blood cells in the whole blood. The color of the plasma varies greatly from sample to sample, ranging from barely yellow to dark yellow and occasionally with a brown, orange, or green tint.

Using whole blood, an anticoagulant is added soon after collection to avoid coagulation and retain all constituents in circulation. If you leave this blood sample alone without mixing it, all of the elements will settle down. The thicker cells will sink to the pool’s bottom. As a consequence, at the top, there is a clear liquid. This clear top layer is plasma, which includes all of the blood’s components to save the cells. During centrifugation, a layer of white cells known as the buffy coat forms between the plasma and red blood cells. Fibrinogen is a protein that is found in plasma.

Serum

When no anticoagulant is present, the clotting factors promote blood clotting. These clots, which use fibrinogen as a clotting factor, efficiently remove red blood cells from plasma as either a solid mass. The serum is the most frequently used in research since it makes up a larger percentage of blood than plasma. This is due to the fact that it eliminates undesirable red blood cells more rapidly, resulting in a significant volume per unit of blood.

Functions of Plasma and Serum

Blood includes fibrinogen and blood clotting proteins, which induce clotting when blood is exposed to air, in addition to red and white blood cells and nutrients. This coagulation is necessary to avoid excessive bleeding after an injury. Anticoagulants inhibit the function of these coagulation components, preventing clots from forming.

Blood plasma and serum are two types of blood preparations that differ based on whether or not an anticoagulant is administered to the blood sample at the time of collection. The inclusion of anticoagulants to avoid clot formation is critical, for instance, if the blood is to be transfused, as well as while making serum for cell culture.

Blood centrifugation can separate plasma and serum based on weight, size, and density. The serum is the liquid acquired after allowing blood to clot, whereas the plasma is obtained after treating blood with anticoagulants.

Plasma And Serum: Difference

Plasma

• A clear, straw-coloured liquid component of the blood
• It’s made up of serum and clotting factors
• It is obtained by centrifuging blood with an anticoagulant
• To extract plasma from a blood sample, an anticoagulant is necessary
• It accounts for 55% of the total volume of blood
• Fibrinogen is present

Serum

• The extracellular part of blood is a clear, unadulterated fluid
• It is a section of the blood that lacks a clotting factor
• It is obtained by centrifuging coagulated blood
• It is not necessary to use an anticoagulant to separate the serum from the blood sample
• In comparison to plasma, there is less volume
• It’s deficient in fibrinogen

Conclusion 

We discussed Plasma, Serum, the difference between plasma and serum, and other related topics through the study material notes on the difference between plasma and serum. The liquid that persists just after blood clot is known as serum. Plasma is the liquid that persists once clotting is avoided using an anticoagulant.Serum and clotting factor make up plasma. Serum is a component of the blood without clotting factor.Plasma is the primary transport channel for excretory products. Serum contains a lot of electrolytes.