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Blood fractionation is the process of fractionating whole blood, or separating it into its component parts. This is typically done by centrifuging the blood.
The resulting components are:
- a clear solution of blood plasma in the upper phase (which can be separated into its own fractions, see Blood plasma fractionation),
- the buffy coat, which is a thin layer of leukocytes (white blood cells) mixed with platelets in the middle, and
- erythrocytes (red blood cells) at the bottom of the centrifuge tube.
Serum separation tubes (SSTs) are tubes used in phlebotomy containing a silicone gel; when centrifuged the silicone gel forms a layer on top of the buffy coat, allowing the blood serum to be removed more effectively for testing and related purposes.
As an alternative to energy-consuming centrifugation, more energy-efficient technologies have been studied, such as ultrasonic fractionation.[1]
- ^ Smalberger C, Nathan M, Rubin DM, Nel M, Kotopoulis S, Carlson CS, Postema M (2022). "Experimental setup for the ultrasonic fractionation of flowing whole blood in a capillary". Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering. 8 (2): 89–92. doi:10.1515/cdbme-2022-1024.