Some articles in the literature indicate that blood anticoagulant type and amount play a role in expression of certain cell activation markers e.g., expressed on WBCs and platelets (I'm interested in any references here - along with info on the Q below). In my particular in vitro studies, however, I often try to mimic clinical CPB (cardiopulmonary bypass) conditions using human whole blood (50-100% diluted) and heparin as anticoagulant. The latter also includes dose response analyses e.g., with subclinical (e.g., << 1 U/ml) heparin levels. My question for anyone out there is: as I need to immediately quench generation of coagulation factors (particularly thrombin generation, also platelet activity etc..) at specified timepoints in the studies, what's the best anticoagulant or other agent for this? Certainly I could just use fixative. The BD 3-color procedure suggests ACD but CTAD seems like it would be a good choice too - because of the presence of platelet stabilizers against further invitro platelet activation. To complicate things, I also run quite a few ELISAs (TAT, C3a, etc..) on the collected blood - so I have to be cautious about interfering agents.
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