Method for Diluting Serum Glucose

Be sure to carefully measure the water quantity when diluting a sample.

Knowing how to perform dilutions is essential for scientists making solutions. It is also important for the laboratory scientist or technician to understand how to perform the calculations to set up and finalize the dilution. The type of dilution that you perform depends on the ratio that you want for your final volume of the diluted solution. In the case of glucose dilutions, the glucose concentration is normally too high to be detected by a test; therefore, serial dilutions are necessary.

Things You'll Need

• Serum glucose
• Pipette
• 25 ml beaker
• 25 ml distilled water
• Test tubes
• Vortex

Instructions

1. Make sure the serum glucose is completely thawed, if frozen.

2. Obtain the concentration of your serum glucose solution in milligrams per milliliter of blood.

3. Set up two test tubes in a test tube rack with 9.9 milliliters of water each.

4. Dilute the solution to one over one hundred. With your pipette, take 0.1 milliliter of your serum glucose sample and add it to the first test tube containing 9.9 milliliters of water. This test tube now contains a one over one hundred dilution.

5. Make sure you vortex the diluted sample to mix the solution.

6. Take 0.1 milliliter of the diluted sample with a clean pipette and transfer that to the second test tube containing 9.9 milliliters of water. This test tube is now diluted 1 times 10 to the negative 4.

References

• Wellesley college: Dilutions
• Rice University: Dilutions