Our lab is currently discussing if it is necessary to pool plasma from several blood collection tubes prior to aliquoting into cryotubes. We can't agree on the subject.
Here are the two alternatives we are discussing.
Alternative 1 (pooling)
Alternative 2
I have personally always used alternative 1, as I wanted a homogenous mixture, resulting in almost identical aliquots.
However, as this question implies, we are now discussing what to do for an upcoming project.
Is there any real difference between the two, and any additional arguments for any of the alternatives?
Any help is appreciated.
There should not be a difference between methods really. If you are pooling from the same individuals.
Pooling does carry a slight increased risk that in the pooling process 2 different samples may get mixed in error ( samples mixed on taking the blood or mixed in the lab). Separate samples . If taking family bloods or in regions with a common forename or surname there can often be a labelling problem with 2 generations with the same forename. Sometimes it is good to have a duplicate to retest
It's always ood to have a backup sample. If you are testing a subset of the 15 cyrovials from each individual, then there is no need to pool to get "homogenous" sample as all 15 samples are already identical in version 2. Like Paul Rutland said, increased handling/mixing increases the risk of cross-contamination or other mistakes.
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