Question: Could the plasma in your blood be used more in the future.

Liam Bagley answered on 18 Jun 2013:

Hi gjam1849,

Plasma in our blood is the straw coloured stuff in my photo on my profile. It’s role is to carry things to different parts of our bodies to have an effect somewhere else. An example of this is leptin, which I study a lot, which is released from the fat we carry around with us. It’s released from fat then it is carried in plasma to our stomachs and regulates how hungry or full we feel. Scientists are looking at this as the future of controlling peoples eating.

The plasma I take from people I store at -80C, which stops all the processes happening in it because its so cold. I can then use it years down the line for analysis to see what people are carrying in their blood. At the moment I look for proteins which might cause inflammation in muscle, which is actually a good thing believe it or not! As it leads to adaptation and good stuff happening like the muscle becoming stronger and faster!
The plasma in my photo is enough for about 50 or 60 tests, our equipment in the lab is so sensitive it only needs tiny amounts to detect stuff!

So I’ll use a lot more plasma from people I test in the future, this stuff will last me years!

Liam