Sample collection and handling is described for serum, plasma, urine, oral fluid (saliva), cerebrospinal fluid, amniotic fluid, amniocentesis, sweat, semen, hair and milk, including the pre-sampling state and preparation of the participant. The section on serum and plasma collection and preparation includes the use of anticoagulants, serum separators and sample collection tubes. The chapter contains extended coverage of the science and practice of saliva as a sample source, including a list of analytes typically measured in saliva.

Dr. Douglas A. Granger is a psychoneuroendocrinology researcher who is well known for his development of methods related to saliva collection and analysis and the theoretical and statistical integration of salivary measures into research. At the Johns Hopkins University, he holds joint appointments at the School of Nursing, School of Medicine, and Bloomberg School of Public Health. His studies have been instrumental in the conceptualization and analysis of biosocial relationships involving child well-being, parent-child and family relationships, as well as how these biosocial links moderate and mediate the effects of early adversity and stress on children’s adjustment. Dr. Granger is a leading expert engaged in work focused on the discovery, measurement, and application of analytes (hormones, antibodies, chemicals, DNA) in saliva. He has published more than 150 studies. At Johns Hopkins, he has created and leads the Center for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research/to facilitate the integration of salivary analytes into prevention science, nursing, public health, and medicine.

Dorothée Out, PhD, is currently a visiting scholar at the Center for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research at the Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD, USA), for which she received a Rubicon award from the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO). Her doctoral research focused on the influence of parenting on infant attachment, and she also examined adults´ perceptual, physiological and caregiving responses to infant crying, using a genetically informative design. Her current work focuses on the integration of salivary biomarkers into developmental research, especially in the area of stress regulation in infants. Her studies examined several salivary analytes (e.g., cortisol, alpha-amylase, C-reactive protein, cytokines, testosterone, oxytocin), the reliability and validity of salivary biomarkers, developmental aspects, and social and contextual influences. Dorothée Out is also an assistant professor at the Center for Child and Family Studies, Leiden University (the Netherlands).

Sara B. Johnson, PhD, MPH, is currently Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research is focused on using noninvasive biomarkers to understand the role of early social adversity in lifelong health disparities.

This chapter also contains material contributed to previous editions by Colin E. Wilde, retired, formerly Consultant Clinical Biochemist, Clinical Chemistry Department, Royal Infirmary, Doncaster, UK.

Sample, participant, stress, exercise, food, drink, lipids, alcohol, smoking, posture, surgery, injection, transfusion, drugs, drug interactions, pregnancy, age, race, ethnicity, biological rhythm, menstrual cycle, circadian rhythm, pulsatile secretion, drug monitoring, venipuncture, phlebotomy, blood collection, serum, plasma, urine, oral fluid, saliva, cerebrospinal fluid, amniotic fluid, amniocentesis, sweat, semen, hair, milk, interference, false positive, false negative, icterus, hemolysis, lipemia.