Cell Enrichment

Isolating populations of cells can be a tedious job. But St. Paul, Minn.-based BioErgonomics Inc. (BioE) has put an end to the hard work of cell separation with its PrepaCyte™ reagent--a two-step media that agglutinates unwanted cells via surface antigen recognition. Traditional methods of cell separation rely on differences in the cells' density, size, or affinity for antibody-coated beads, as the cells are passed over a density gradient or through columns that selectively retain populati

Written byAmy Adams

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To use PrepaCyte for cell separation, researchers treat the cells, from human bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, or peripheral blood, with an anticoagulant and then mix the cells and PrepaCyte in a one-to-one ratio. After 30 minutes on a rocker followed by a 30 minute incubation to allow unwanted cells to precipitate, the supernatant is >90 percent T cells, contains 90-95 percent of the original stem cells, and is enriched for natural killer (NK) cells and rare populations such as CD34+ progenitor cells. These cells are viable and ready for use in tissue culture or in further purification protocols. For example, scientists can treat cells isolated through this technique with BioE's VitaLyse™ reagent set, which removes residual red blood cells, to prepare T cells for long-term activation cultures or bone marrow cells for long-term colony assays.

According to Collins, "PrepaCyte is a huge improvement [over traditional cell separation methods]. Even ...

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