JPS60235035A - Method and apparatus for sampling minute amount of specimen while filtering - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable the sampling of the minute amount of a specimen at a stroke while filtering the same, by separating the raw specimen poured in a cylindrical container having a hollow fiber piercing through the bottom surface thereof and sampling the supernatant specimen while filtering the same through fine pores of the hollow fiber. CONSTITUTION:A hollow fiber 3 having numberless fine pores is pierced through the tubular projection 2 provided to the bottom surface of a cylindrical container 1 and fixed thereto while a sampling container 4 is attached to the outer bottom surface of the container 1 in a freely detachable manner to be mounted to a holding container 7 which is, in turn, rotated at a high speed by a drive means 5 through a disc 6. By this method, only serum of a separated raw specimen (whole blood) can be sampled in the container 4 through the hollow fiber 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for filtration and collection of a trace sample, which enables the collection of plasma from which proteins have been separated at once from, for example, whole blood.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, when obtaining a desired sample such as a protein-separated plasma sample, serum is first separated from whole blood using a centrifugal separator or the like, and the separated serum is then transferred to a container equipped with a filter membrane with an extremely fine pore size. The test sample had to be injected into the membrane, positive pressure was applied to the downstream side of the filtration membrane, or positive pressure was applied to the inside of the container, and the pressure difference was used to allow the sample to permeate, making it impossible to obtain the test sample immediately. However, there were various problems such as the need for a large amount of original samples.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention is intended to solve the above-mentioned problems, and aims to provide a method and apparatus for filtration and collection of a minute sample, which allows a desired minute sample to be collected by filtration from an original sample at once.

[Structure of the invention]

In this invention, a hollow fiber is installed in a cylindrical container so as to penetrate through the bottom surface of the container, the original sample injected into the container is separated using centrifugal force, and the supernatant can be collected by filtration through the micropores of the hollow fiber. It is configured as follows.

〔Example〕

Next, this invention will be explained based on an embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings.

Reference numeral 1 denotes a cylindrical container made of plastic, glass, or the like, and a tubular protrusion 2 is provided on the bottom surface of the cylindrical container 1. 3 is a hollow fiber installed inside the cylindrical container 1 so as to pass through the tubular projection 2. The hollow fiber used here has countless micropores (molecular weight of about 10,000 to 100,000) in its hollow peripheral wall that can separate proteins from serum, for example, and the outer diameter can be arbitrarily determined. 5~2.5f
It is preferable that the hollow fiber 3 has a life-like diameter, but it is also possible to collect and install a plurality of hollow fibers with a diameter smaller than this.
is fixed liquid-tightly and airtightly to the inner hole of the tubular projection 2 of the cylindrical container 1 with an adhesive or the like.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a collection container provided on the outer bottom surface of the cylindrical container 1. The collection container 4 can be detachably attached to the cylindrical container 1 by an appropriate means, or can be driven at high speed by a driving means 5 as shown in FIG. It may be arranged to follow the outer bottom surface of the cylindrical container 1 in a holding container 7 installed so as to swing as shown by the dashed line in the second drawing due to the centrifugal force of the rotationally driven disc 6.

In order to return a desired sample from an original sample (whole blood) using the cylindrical container 1, first, an appropriate amount of the original sample is injected into the cylindrical container. The collection container 4 is placed in a holding container 7 installed on the disk 6.
After mounting the two discs 6 together, the drive means 5 rotates the two discs 6 at high speed (3000 rpm or more), so that the original sample (whole blood) a in the cylindrical container 1 as shown in FIG. The blood cells sink and the serum is separated as a supernatant. In this separated blood cell layer, the micropores of the hollow fiber 3 are blocked by blood cells, and in the serum layer C, proteins in serum are captured in the micropores of the hollow fiber 3, and only plasma passes through the micropores. It permeates into the inner hole of the hollow fiber 3 and is collected into the collection container 4 through the tube end 3a passing through the inner hole and penetrating the bottom surface of the cylindrical container 1. The desired sample thus collected is subjected to a certain test as a test sample.

〔Effect of the invention〕

In this way, the present invention installs a hollow fiber inside a cylindrical container so as to penetrate through the bottom surface of the container.

The original sample injected into the container is separated using centrifugal force, and the supernatant sample is collected by filtration through the micropores of the hollow fiber. Vj-separated serum is further injected into a container equipped with a filtration membrane with extremely fine pore size, and the pressure difference is reduced by applying positive pressure downstream of the filtration membrane or by applying positive pressure inside the container. This method has the excellent effect of allowing the necessary amount of the test sample to be filtered and collected from a small amount of the original sample at once without the trouble of using it for permeation.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The figures show one embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 1 is a front sectional view;
FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the device installed in a holding container of a centrifugal separator, and FIGS. 3A and 3B are explanatory diagrams of the filtration state. ■-Tubular container 2-Tubular protrusion 3-Hollow fiber 4-Collection container

Claims (1)

[Claims] +11 A hollow fiber is installed in a cylindrical container so as to penetrate through its bottom surface, and the original sample injected into the container is separated using centrifugal force, and the supernatant sample is separated from the fine particles of the hollow fiber. A method for collecting a trace sample by filtration, characterized by collecting the sample by filtration through a hole. (2) A micro sample filtration and collection device, characterized in that a hollow fiber is installed in a cylindrical container so as to penetrate through the bottom surface of the container, and a collection container is provided on the outer bottom surface of the container.