The Effects of Long-term Storage on Commonly Measured Serum Analyte Levels.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Cohort studies typically bank biospecimens for many years before assay and investigators do not know whether levels of analytes have degraded.

Methods

We collected control samples from 22 nonstudy participants using the same enrollment criteria and specimen collection, processing, and storage protocols as The Sister Study. Serum samples were assayed for 21 analytes at collection and 6 years later. For each sample, the difference between the result at baseline and at 6 years was calculated for each analyte.

Results

Some of the analytes experienced a marked decrease in concentration after 6 years of frozen storage in liquid nitrogen vapor, compared with their baseline value. The confidence interval for the mean paired difference excluded 0 for 8 of the 21 ana

SUBMITTER: Kleeberger C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5882538 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature