Basic Principles and Recent Advances in Magnetic Cell Separation

Abstract

Magnetic cell separation has become a key methodology for the isolation of target cell populations from biological suspensions, covering a wide spectrum of applications from diagnosis and therapy in biomedicine to environmental applications or fundamental research in biology. There now exists a great variety of commercially available separation instruments and reagents, which has permitted rapid dissemination of the technology. However, there is still an increasing demand for new tools and protocols which provide improved selectivity, yield and sensitivity of the separation process while reducing cost and providing a faster response. This review aims to introduce basic principles of magnetic cell separation for the neophyte, while giving an overview of recent research in the field, from the development of new cell labeling strategies to the design of integrated microfluidic cell sorters and of point-of-care platforms combining cell selection, capture, and downstream detection. Finally, we focus on clinical, industrial and environmental applications where magnetic cell separation strategies are amongst the most promising techniques to address the challenges of isolating rare cells.

pH-Responsible Doxorubicin-Loaded Fe3O4@CaCO3 Nanocomposites for Cancer Treatment

“…MNCs have widespread applications in drug delivery, magnetic field-influenced transport, magnetic resonance imaging, hyperthermia therapy, theranostics, magnetic separation, and biosensor areas [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ]. NC is a promising tool for external magnetic field target-specific delivery of anticancer agents [ 1 , 21 , 22 , 30 ].…”

Enrichment of Human Dermal Stem Cells from Primary Cell Cultures through the Elimination of Fibroblasts

“…In contrast, negative selection is mostly less pure than positive selection methods since it is more difficult to target all unwanted cells. For this, it is necessary to know exactly what kind of cells are in the starting cell suspension, and there must be a unique surface marker for every cell type [ 31 ].…”

Label-free microfluidic cell sorting and detection for rapid blood analysis

“…It should be noted that the adoption of ferrofluids for cell separation is limited by hindrance in optical imaging due to light diffraction of ferrofluids. 148,151 Hence, the nanoscopic properties of ferrofluids have to be further optimized to develop new bio-applications.…”

“…[143][144][145][146] Ferrofluids are stable colloid suspensions of ferromagnetic nanoparticles such as magnetite or maghemite 147 dispersed in a nonmagnetic carrier fluid such as water or organic solvent. 148 Cells and particles suspended in ferrofluids behave as "magnetic voids" 149 which are deflected to distinct size-based flow trajectories when an external magnetic field is applied to attract magnetic nanoparticles. 145,150 As most commercial ferrofluids are not biocompatible, 143 careful selection of the ferrofluid material, pH and surfactant is crucial for cell manipulation.…”