Blood sample preparation. - (Feb/26/2008 )

I try to measure the plasma level of acylated ghrelin, but I'm not sure about the blood sample collection. Anybody can help me!!!. I wanna know, what kind of anti-coagulant that is suitable for blood sample collection of acylated ghrelin? I will be waiting for your help.

If you are going to use a commercial Elisa kit, have a look at the manual and see what they recommend. In my experience, EDTA is the most common, although a few times I saw citrate or heparin were needed (sorry, I don´t know exactly why one or another).
Depending on what are the objectives of your study, perhaps you could measure serum levels, where no anticoagulant is required.
Hope this helps.