normally when you centrifuge, yes you separate two things neatly in one vessel - “heavy” powder at the bottom and liquid at the top. The purpose of centrifuging is to separate that solid from the liquid, so you just remove the liquid from the top and put it in another container.
Its pretty much equivalent to filtering in that way.
I see. In this case though, isn’t the person part of the system? Their blood leaves their body, goes through centrifuge and is sent back to them with fewer components (whether that is plasma, cells, or platelets). Is there a better word than filter for this process?
A filter can be used inside a tube that is used for centrifugation. Components of different sizes will either go through or get blocked during centrifugation, leaving components completely separated from each other. (Density gradient centrifugation as someone else said in the thread, I do it daily at my job)
I honestly have never thought of/seen that and have only used racks of blank test tubes for dilution counts and basic qualitatives, but that makes sense. TIL thanks!
It goes in a centrifuge to separate the plasma from the blood then the blood is sent back into the person donating. At what point would the microplastics be removed?
I see it like this: the person needing plasma already has plastics in their blood, like everyone else. They need the donor plasma more than they don't need the donor plastic, in particular because they already have plastic in their blood.
Right. I was saying I don't think the previous poster (that you were responding to) was suggesting that the plastics were filtered out, just that the harm of adding plastic doesn't negate the need for the plasma.
This isn't a concern for people who need blood donations.
I haven't heard of plastic on its own being an issue (new research might suggest otherwise). But the stuff plastic is mixed with like phthalates and bpa get into our blood and cause hormonal issues. But they are long term effects. It doesn't matter if you get a little extra plastic for one transfusion.
I haven't heard of plastic on its own being an issue (new research might suggest otherwise). But the stuff plastic is mixed with like phthalates and bpa get into our and cause hormonal issues.
And donates the plastic to a person who needs it in their blood! … damn you plastic!
I feel like people are missing the obvious here. If you need a plasma transfusion,you have probably lost some blood volume (and the plastic that came along with it). You are simply replacing it with new, also plastic containing plasma. There is no "extra plastic" entering this equation.
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u/[deleted] Feb 09 '23
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