Reagents and instruments for immunology, cell biology and molecular biology.

Lewis rat plasma

The Lewis rats have characteristics include albino coloring, docile behavior, and low fertility. The Lewis rat suffers from several spontaneous pathologies as adenomas of the pituitary and adenomas/adenocarcinomas of the adrenal cortex in both sexes, mammary gland tumors and endometrial carcinomas in females, and C-cell adenomas/adenocarcinomas of the thyroid gland and tumors of the haemopoietic system in males. Lewis rats are prone to develop a spontaneous transplantable lymphatic leukaemia.

Plasma is the liquid part of the blood in which the blood cells are suspended. Plasma makes up half of the blood volume. Blood plasma has primarily a transport role. It transports blood cells and hormones throughout the body.

Plasma is extracted from whole blood by centrifugation. During the centrifugation process, the blood cells end up at the bottom of the tube and the yellowish liquid that remains is the plasma. More than 90% of plasma is water. Other components of plasma are mineral solutes such as trace elements and ions, respiratory gases (O2 and CO2) and organic solutes such as plasma proteins.

Thanks to these different components, plasma has 3 main functions: maintenance of blood volume and pressure in the vessels (oncotic pressure) with albumin, coagulation with clotting factors and immune defence with antibodies.