Technical Notes: MagCellect

Magnetic Beads in Cell Selection Procedures

Techniques to positively or negatively select desired cell populations include nylon wool columns, complement-mediated cell lysis, antibody panning, fluorescence activated cell sorting and magnetic particle technology. Although it is a relatively new technique, magnetic based cell selection has become a widely accepted laboratory practice largely due to its speed, flexibility and ease of use.
There are three key issues to be considered when adopting magnetic cell separation technology:

1. Magnetic properties of the particle - superparamagnetic particles are ideal as they have no magnetic memory
2. Size of the particle - nanometer size particles are preferred as they maximize reaction kinetics, behave as a fluid, and do not interfere with downstream applications
3. Magnetic field requirements - lower field strength is optimal as more powerful magnets can be cost prohibitive

R&D Systems’ new line of MagCellect* products optimizes many of these considerations by offering kits that allow for the rapid and efficient selection of various human, mouse and rat cell populations from peripheral blood without the need for expensive instruments. Our kits use nanometer sized particles along with a magnet that allows for up to six 5 mL tubes or two 15 mL tubes to be processed simultaneously. These products will provide investigators greater choice in cell selection products as well as the ability to use these reagents with our extensive line of antibodies to unique molecules.

*MagCellect products utilize and/or contain technology licensed from Veridex, LLC, Raritan, New Jersey 08869, USA, which is covered by one or more claims of United States and International patents and/or pending patent applications.
 

Figure 1. Mouse splenocytes before (A.) and after (B.) separation of CD3+ T cells using the MagCellect Mouse CD3+ T Cell Isolation Kit (R&D Systems, Catalog # MAGM201). Histograms reflect viable cells stained with CD3-FITC. Purity of all isolated cells for this experiment was 98%.