title: Special collection and storage tubes for blood endotoxin and cytokine measurements.
abstract: Commercially available blood-collection tubes may be contaminated with endotoxin (315 +/- 95 pg/tube) and could therefore be unsuitable for blood collection for endotoxin measurement. Plasma separation and storage are a potential source of contamination. To avoid contamination and error, we have developed new blood collection tubes that contain heparin free of endotoxin (LPS) and a gel to separate plasma and blood cells. The LPS content is less than 4 pg/tube. Samples can be stored and frozen without plasma withdrawal to preclude contamination. LPS recovery experiments have shown that the new blood-collection tubes do not bind LPS to the separation gel or vial wall. With these tubes, in vitro formation of tumor necrosis factor (404 +/- 163 ng/L in standard tubes vs less than 40 ng/L in special collection tubes) is minimized.
authors.affiliation: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Experimental and Clinical Traumatology, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Redl
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bahrami
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Leichtfried
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schlag
mesh_terms: D001800:Blood Specimen Collection / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D016207:Cytokines / Q000097:blood*; D004731:Endotoxins / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D004731:Endotoxins