Advia 1650 system

All study participants were asked to fast for at least 8 h the day before blood collection. Between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., a clinical pathologist collected 15 mL of blood from the participants’ forearms vein using a spasm blood collection tube and needle. The collected blood was then centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 10 min, using a Combi-514R (Hanil, Seoul, Republic of Korea), with the serum being used for analysis.
Total cholesterol (TC) and triglycerides (TGs) were analyzed via enzyme colorimetry using automatic analyzers and the contained reagents from Siemens (ADVIA-1650; Norcross, GA, USA). High-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol were also analyzed via the elimination/catalase method, using the ADVIA-1650 system (Siemens, Berlin, Germany) in accordance with the manufacturer instructions.

A total of 25 serum samples from four captive bearded seals and serum samples from 74 wild bearded seals were analysed for selected enzymes, proteins, metabolites, minerals, cortisol, and thyroxine (Table 1). Serum chemistry analyses were assayed using an ADVIA® 1650 System (Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, USA). Lipaemia was indicated by the ADVIA 1650 System, and samples classified as lipaemic (1+ and 2+) were automatically diluted before analysis to avoid erroneous measurements [17 ]. Serum endocrinology analyses (cortisol and thyroxine) were assayed using an IMMULITE® 2000 Immunoassay System (Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, USA). The reference values for serum biochemistry parameters and hormones were calculated in Excel and are presented as median, range (min–max) and percentiles (5–95%), to show variation and a reference range that is excluding outliers.