Which Tubes?

Whether youre collecting your samples in-house or through a clinic, hospital or

pathology center, youll need to have a good idea of what kind of blood collection tubes
suit your purposes. The first thing to check is your protocol for example, some ELISAs
will specify the types of samples you can and cant use.
But what if your protocol doesnt specify, or youre adapting a method from another
system, or you just want to make sure youre storing the best type of sample for future
not-yet-defined analyses? Hopefully I can help you start to find your way around all
those differently-colored tubes.
(A quick note about those cap colors before we begin: Ive listed them below, and the
color-coding system is generally pretty consistent, but I cant promise the colors are the
same in every company producing blood collection tubes.)

Serum tubes
Probably the first thing to figure out is whether you are after serum, or whether youll
need to stop the blood from clotting. Dont get serum confused with plasma while
theyre both the liquid, cell-free part of the blood which can be obtained by
centrifugation, the key difference is that serum is the product of blood which has been
allowed to clot, while in a plasma sample, the dense cells are simply spun to the
bottom.
So serum is, in simple terms, what remains in the blood after it clots: a cell-free liquid
that is also depleted of coagulation factors. It can be a good, stable way of measuring
the bloods proteins, lipids, hormones, electrolytes and so on. Many of these markers
can be stored for days in the fridge, or frozen down and measured in batches later.

Serum (clot activator) tubes (color dependent on brand; BD is

commonly gold but also red, Greiner is red).

These tubes have silica particles, which activate clotting. Some also have a gel to
separate the serum.

Those without the separating gel are potentially more useful in sensitive diagnostic
testing. If youre looking for a protein that isnt involved in coagulation, this is a good
place to start.

Thrombin-based clot activator tubes (orange)

Although the silica-coated tubes clot within about 30 minutes, the orange tubes clot
within 5. Theyre mainly used clinically for tests that are needed especially quickly.
However, some of the serum components are a little less stable in these tubes.

Anticoagulant tubes
This is the category to consider if you need cells or plasma (cell-free liquid which still
contains coagulation factors).

EDTA (purple)

EDTA prevents clotting by chelating calcium, an essential component of coagulation.

This is your basic hematology tube (by which I mean identifying and counting blood
cells, blood typing etc). Plasma stored from EDTA blood can also be used to measure
most proteins, and genetic material can easily be stored from EDTA buffy coats (the
interface between the red cells and the plasma after centrifugation, containing white
cells and platelets). Note: these tubes contain either K 2EDTA or K3EDTA.

Sodium Citrate (light blue)

For coagulation and platelet function tests. Like EDTA, citrate acts by removing calcium
from blood. Unlike EDTA, its reversible so calcium can be added back to study
coagulation under controlled conditions. Citrated plasma is also used to measure
coagulation-relevant factors. Its worth noting that a citrate tube should not be the first
type of tube filled after venepuncture the first few mL of blood drawn will be a bit
activated. If you only need citrate for your project, then you should collect a discard
tube first. Also note that different concentrations of citrate are available from different
companies.

CTAD (also light blue)

CTAD stands for citrate, theophylline, adenosine and dipyridamole. These arent very
commonly used, but are worth knowing about they prevent ex vivo activation of your
platelets, making them useful for some more sensitive platelet function and coagulation
studies. Note that CTAD is light-sensitive, so keep these guys in the dark.

Lithium/sodium hHparin (green)

Similar in use to serum clot activator tubes, but suitable for tests in plasma rather than
serum. Like the serum tubes, heparin tubes can also come with a separating gel.
Heparin acts by inhibiting thrombin formation. Note: if your endgame is PCR, you should
know that heparin is particularly known to interfere with PCR reactions. However,
whichever anticoagulant you choose, you may need to allow for it in your reaction mix.

Sodium Fluoride (color dependent on brand; BD is grey, Greiner is

black)

Sodium fluoride is an antiglycolytic agent, so these tubes are used for glucose and
lactate testing. They also contain an anticoagulant (there are different types available).

Acid citrate dextrose ACD (yellow)

These ones are not common, but they are used for blood and tissue typing and DNA
analysis.

Sodium polyanethol sulfonate -SPS (also yellow)

SPS stabilizes bacterial growth. Useful for microbiology.

For specific purposes, there are more blood collection tubes out there, but hopefully this
has given you a handle on where to start. Good luck