What Is Serum?
Serum consists of the liquid component of blood. Serum can be derived by taking whole blood and then modifying it. This modification involves taking out the blood cells via centrifugation. The term "serum" is derived from Latin, and can refer to many types of fluids, including that which is found in blisters as well as other compounds of medical relevance.
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History
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The term "serum" comes from Latin and is derived from the word for whey. Whey is the term of the liquid that separates from curds during the process of the creation of cheese. Though serum has no actual relation to cheese, the term has carried on, primarily because serum can be created via the alteration of whole blood to create the liquid portion.
Identification
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Serum, in the most commonly used definition, is the liquid part of blood. Blood is composed of two parts: the liquid portion, which contains proteins, minerals and other factors essential for clotting, and the blood cells. The blood cells are a mixture of red blood cells, which carry oxygen around the body, and white blood cells, which are a critical part of the immune system.
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Features
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Serum can be extracted from whole blood via centrifugation. Centrifugation is a physical process in which the material is spun around, circularly, at a high velocity. Centrifugation separates out materials in a solution via density. More dense materials are moved, via the centrifugal momentum, to the bottom of the container. In the case of blood, the cellular materials, being more dense, are propelled to the bottom, allowing for the extraction of the cell-free serum.
Features
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Serum is blood plasma without any clotting factors. Plasma is the liquid component of blood and is 90 percent water. It contains dissolved proteins, minerals and dissolved carbon dioxide. After whole blood is centrifuged, the plasma can be drawn or poured off.
Considerations
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Blood serum can be used to treat a variety of diseases, especially massive blood loss. In this case, the most prominent risk factor is the loss of blood volume. Serum can be used to counteract this, though the body will still be short on blood cells until it has time to replenish it. One of the advantages of serum is that it can be stored for an extended period of time. Serum can also be used to treat disorders in which the blood has a tendency to clot. In these cases, it works by diluting clotting factors.
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