I'm trying to elute dry blood spots into solution, I'll then be using the samples for measuring antibody levels through ELISA. I've tried eluting the blood spots in PBS with Tween (0.05%) and this works quite well on a plate shaker for a few hours with fresh samples, but some of the samples are up to ten years old and are not eluted so easily.
You may try to add trehalose or sucrose (1 - 5%) to the buffer. These sugars are often used in storage buffers to preserve protein (especially antibody) 3D structure and functionality.
I think PBS plus o,1% Tween-20 plus prtease inhibitors and overnight rocking at 4C should help. I have used it with filter papers containing dry blood 1-2 year after collection.
How long are you shaking it? It might be wise to use the same PBS and Tween mix you are using that has worked for fresh blood but leaving it longer. Dehydrated blood takes a very long time to re-hydrate. If possible, I would also cut the blood spots to be able to reach the interface between paper and blood. I hope it helps.
In our Lab. blood samples were spoted on Whatman 3 MM paper and then refrigerated (2–8°C) in individual plastic bags with silica gel. Antibodies in dried blood were stable at least 1 – 2 months and were extracted well by diluent elution (PBS with 0.1 Tween 20) overnight. . However we did not extract antibodies from dry blood spots that are several years old. Maria and Nirbhayh have good suggestions and may be to help.
Below link gives you more information about experiment
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC501537/
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