While we all know platelets as the component of blood that helps it develop clots upon wounds, there’s more to these biconvex discoid structures. When it comes to storing them, they must be isolated from blood and stored separately, with plasma. The time period of their storage is usually five days. Over time, they undergo a number of storage changes, which makes their storage much more demanding.
At room temperature, you cannot store platelets for more than five days—or seven days, at the most. If you wish to store these samples for longer than that—as most modern facilities want to do—you’ll need something more than just room temperature.
You’ll need to maintain the temperature within your storage solution and carefully calibrate it. What you need here is a heating and cooling technology that is built specifically to help these platelets remain perfectly functional. An advanced medical-grade freezer is what you need.
If we were talking about energy in general, then thrombin-induced aggregation is a process platelets undergo, and this is a process that has been reported to consume a great deal of energy. But then, we aren’t talking about metabolic energy here.
We’re talking about electrical energy.
Conventional cold storage options can all drain your energy source, especially if you keep calibrating their controls. Moreover, the larger the biobank, the greater your energy loss. Not only does this add to already rising levels of global warming and greenhouses gases, but they also bring in heavy utility bills.
For you, it’s a lose-lose solution.
It’s simple: you kill the chlorofluorocarbons. Chlorofluorocarbons—or CFC gases, as they are called—are a major contributor to global warming. They have done great damage to the precious ozone layer.
The good news is that we do have non-CFC options. Natural green refrigerants are high in efficiency and don’t contribute to the planet’s eventual doom.
Another solution is to opt for smaller, more portable freezers. These nifty little freezers take up much less energy than their herculean counterparts. This saves energy and reduces your monthly bills.
Among the many biomedical storage solutions that we offer, there’s the medical-grade refrigerator. Portable, temperature adjustable, eco-friendly, energy-efficient, and durable, this medical-grade refrigerator is ideal for cold storage in biomedical labs. Find out more about its specifications here.