Effect of multiple freeze-thaw cycles on selected biochemical serum components
-
Randi E. Gislefoss
,
Marianne Lauritzen
Abstract
Background:
To maintain the best performance a frozen serum sample should be thawed once to prevent repeated freeze-thaw cycles. Archival biobanks often have one tube of a sample available, causing repeated freeze-thaw cycles when the sample is used in multiple research projects. In this study, we investigated potential effects of freeze-thaw cycles on several biochemical components in serum.
Methods:
Serum from 40 fasting donors of both genders, aged 30–60 years, were frozen at –25 °C. Aliquots of the 40 different samples went through 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 thaws, respectively. They were analyzed after 3 month of storage for 15 serum components including electrolytes and metabolites, proteins and enzymes, lipids, hormones and vitamins. One-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measurements and equivalence tests were used to examine differences in component levels.
Results:
Albumin, aspartate-aminotransferase (ASAT), cholesterol, creatinine, C-reactive protein, glucose, immunoglobulin G, potassium, testosterone, triglycerides, urea and vitamin B12 levels did not show significant difference for pairwise comparisons after 10 repeated thaws. Although albumin, ASAT, bilirubin, potassium, sodium, testosterone and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) showed overall statistically significant changes in serum levels, only bilirubin, sodium and TSH were significant for the pairwise comparisons investigated. Clinical significance were shown for albumin, ASAT, bilirubin, sodium and testosterone.
Conclusions:
Twelve components (albumin, ASAT, cholesterol, creatinine, C-reactive protein, glucose, immunoglobulin G, potassium, testosterone, triglycerides, urea and vitamin B12) were robust to 10 repeated thaws compared to baseline level. Three components (bilirubin, sodium and TSH) showed statistical significant difference for pairwise comparisons, however, TSH was not clinically affected.
Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
Research funding: The fond of Cancer Registry of Norway (Grant/Award Number: Norwegian Cancer Registry fund 2015).
Employment or leadership: None declared.
Honorarium: None declared.
Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.
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©2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorials
- Opportunities and drawbacks of nonstandard body fluid analysis
- How I first met Dr. Morton K. Schwartz
- Reviews
- Measurement of thyroglobulin, calcitonin, and PTH in FNA washout fluids
- Quality control materials for pharmacogenomic testing in the clinic
- Modulating thrombotic diathesis in hereditary thrombophilia and antiphospholipid antibody syndrome: a role for circulating microparticles?
- Opinion Papers
- Advances in laboratory diagnosis of hereditary spherocytosis
- Analytical performance specifications for external quality assessment – definitions and descriptions
- Genetics and Molecular Diagnostics
- Differences between quantification of genotype 3 hepatitis C virus RNA by Versions 1.0 and 2.0 of the COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HCV Test
- General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
- Estimating the intra- and inter-individual imprecision of manual pipetting
- Effect of multiple freeze-thaw cycles on selected biochemical serum components
- The effect of storage temperature fluctuations on the stability of biochemical analytes in blood serum
- Comparison of ex vivo stability of copeptin and vasopressin
- Physiologic changes of urinary proteome by caffeine and excessive water intake
- Assessment of autoantibodies to interferon-ω in patients with autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1: using a new immunoprecipitation assay
- Reference Values and Biological Variations
- Within-day biological variation and hour-to-hour reference change values for hematological parameters
- Relationship between anti-Müllerian hormone and antral follicle count across the menstrual cycle using the Beckman Coulter Access assay in comparison with Gen II manual assay
- Cardiovascular Diseases
- Low-grade inflammation and tryptophan-kynurenine pathway activation are associated with adverse cardiac remodeling in primary hyperparathyroidism: the EPATH trial
- Infectious Diseases
- Comparison between procalcitonin and C-reactive protein in predicting bacteremias and confounding factors: a case-control study
- Monitoring of procalcitonin but not interleukin-6 is useful for the early prediction of anastomotic leakage after colorectal surgery
- Activation of the tryptophan/serotonin pathway is associated with severity and predicts outcomes in pneumonia: results of a long-term cohort study
- Letters to the Editor
- Incidental findings of monoclonal proteins from carbohydrate-deficient transferrin analysis using capillary electrophoresis
- IgD-λ myeloma with extensive free light-chain excretion: a diagnostic pitfall in the identification of monoclonal gammopathies
- 25-Hydroxyvitamin D threshold values should be age-specific
- Effect of dabigatran treatment at therapeutic levels on point-of-care international normalized ratio (INR)
- Alkaline phosphatase activity – pH impact on the measurement result
- Cyst hydatid and cancer: the myth continues
- Role of activated platelets in severe acne scarring and adaptive immunity activation
- Towards a random-access LC-MS/MS model for busulfan analysis
