Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
This work contributes to fill in some existing gaps in the knowledge of human plasma degradability during handling and storage, a paramount issue in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) metabolomics. Regarding the comparison between heparin and EDTA anti-coagulant collection tubes, the former showed no interference of the polysaccharide, while conserving full spectral information. In relation to time/temperature conditions, room temperature was seen to have a large impact on lipoproteins and choline compounds from 2.5 hours. In addition, short-term storage at -20 °C was found suitable up to 7 days but, for periods up to 1 month, -80 °C was recommended. Furthermore, in the case of reusing plasma samples, no more than 3 consecutive freeze-thaw cycles were found advisable. Finally, the impact of long-term -80 °C storage (up to 2.5 years) was found almost negligible, as evaluated on a partially matched non-fasting cohort (n = 49), after having investigated the possible confounding nature of the particular non-fasting conditions employed.
Pinto et al. (Wed,) studied this question.