Sterilizing Blood Serum - Autoclaving at 121°C

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Homework Statement



Which of the following methods is suitable to sterilize a liquid medium,containing blood serum?
(1) pasteurization (2) Autoclaving at 121degrees celsius for 10 minutes (3) Boiling at 100 degree celsius for 10 minutes (4) Filtration using a sterile membrane filter (5) Freezing at -20 degrees celsius
Ans given is (2)

Homework Equations


n/a



The Attempt at a Solution


I don't understand why it can't be (4).Why can't we use a sterile filter to sterilize blood serum,afterall sterilization is to remove or kill any microorganisms present in a medium,right?
My other question is,isn't blood serum a thermolabile medium so how can we sterilize it by heating it,without denaturing any of the plasma proteins present?
 
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What is in blood serum? What is it used for? Are you sure you want to filter everything away?

As for denaturation, yes some of that will happen, but I think you can be sure the temperature and time for autoclaving is carefully chosen and optimized for its purposes.
 
Are you sure you want to filter everything away?
I didn't think of it that way.
Thanks.now I understand,why we can't use a filter.