Blood serum separator tube (SST) containing separator gels is widely used for clinical laboratory tests. The aim of this study is to optimize the condition of a new formulated serum separator gel and to investigate the impact of this gel on some clinical chemistry assays. Design Expert statistical software was used to predict optimum condition of filler content and to achieve a desired density range. The new developed polymeric (silicone oil) gel was prepared by using 8 and 10 phr dicumyl peroxide and silica in formulation, respectively. The results reveal that this new gel shows thixotropic behavior with the desired density of 1.05 g/mL. Afterwards, totally 22 clinical assays were performed on samples which were collected in new developed gel-based serum tubes and commercial SSTs with and without separator gel. In all selected clinical assays, results of samples collected in SSTs with new developed gel and commercial gels were more or less the same. Moreover, the experimental data shows this new gel interacts less with blood samples in comparison with commercial gel tubes in some tests. Consequently, the new SST gives satisfactory performance and minimum interference in selected clinical assay results.

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