Protective Polymer Coatings for High-Throughput, High-Purity Cellular Isolation

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces 2015-08, Vol.7 (32), p.17598-17602
• Main Authors: Romero, Gabriela, Lilly, Jacob J, Abraham, Nathan S, Shin, Hainsworth Y, Balasubramaniam, Vivek, Izumi, Tadahide, Berron, Brad J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antibodies, Immobilized - immunology; Antigens, Neoplasm - immunology; Antigens, Neoplasm - metabolism; Biocompatible Materials - chemistry; Biocompatible Materials - pharmacology; Cell Adhesion Molecules - immunology; Cell Adhesion Molecules - metabolism; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Proliferation - drug effects; Cell Separation - instrumentation; Cell Separation - methods; Cell Survival - drug effects; Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule; Humans; Hydrogels - chemistry; Jurkat Cells; Letter; Leukocyte Common Antigens - immunology; Nanoparticles - chemistry; Polymers - chemistry; Surface-Active Agents - chemistry
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5b06298

Cell-based therapies are emerging as the next frontier of medicine, offering a plausible path forward in the treatment of many devastating diseases. Critically, current methods for antigen positive cell sorting lack a high throughput method for delivering ultrahigh purity populations, prohibiting the application of some cell-based therapies to widespread diseases. Here we show the first use of targeted, protective polymer coatings on cells for the high speed enrichment of cells. Individual, antigen-positive cells are coated with a biocompatible hydrogel which protects the cells from a surfactant solution, while uncoated cells are immediately lysed. After lysis, the polymer coating is removed through orthogonal photochemistry, and the isolate has >50% yield of viable cells and these cells proliferate at rates comparable to control cells. Minority cell populations are enriched from erythrocyte-depleted blood to >99% purity, whereas the entire batch process requires 1 h and