Abstract
Compliance and acceptance for the finger-prick method of blood collection is generally better than for venipuncture. A finger-prick method of blood collection with quantitative antibody recovery is even more important for seroepidemiological surveys. Finger-prick blood collected and dried onto filter paper has been used; but, unfortunately, this method has several disadvantages, including loss of antibody activity, possible contact contamination from blood spots on adjacent filter papers, and difficulties in extracting antibodies, justifying the search for other methods of collecting and transporting blood samples. We report on a simple method of collecting a measured amount of finger-prick blood onto a sample pad, which is immediately transferred to storage/extraction buffer. The diluted blood sample is never dried, and because of the storage buffer, can be transported and stored without refrigeration. Furthermore, the diluted blood samples can then be tested directly without further preparation. We systematically compared several storage/extraction buffers and commercially available filter papers. We showed that antibody recovery was not significantly affected by the type of filter papers used but was significantly affected by the storage/extraction buffer used. The best such buffer is StabilZyme Select™.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 164-171 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Journal of Immunological Methods |
Volume | 320 |
Issue number | 1-2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 30 Mar 2007 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was supported by International Collaborations in Infectious Disease Research — National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant U01 AI-35894, NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Tropical Medicine Research Center grant 1P01 AI-51976-01, Wellcome grant 063109, and Bill and Melinda Gates foundation grant 23981.
Keywords
- FAST-ELISA
- Filter paper
- Finger-prick whole blood collection
- StabilZyme Select