ISOLATION AND PURGING OF CELLS BY MEANS OF OSMOTIC PRESSURE

摘要

The present invention involves methods and apparatuses which enable a selected population of biological cells to be isolated or purged from a cell mixture on the basis of a ratio of nuclear volume to total cell volume. According to the invention, osmotic pressure can be utilized to selectively lyse and/or render non-viable selected undesired subpopulations of cells in a suspension, while not adversely affecting other desired subpopulations. In some embodiments of the invention, cells can be selectively lysed or rendered non-viable on the basis of a ratio of nuclear volume to total cell volume by exposing the cells to a solution having a predetermined osmolarity selected to inactivate a substantial fraction of cells having a ratio of nuclear volume to total cell volume below a threshold value. The invention enables effective cell separation utilizing a relatively rapid and easy to perform method involving changes in the osmolarity of cell suspensions. The inventive method has a variety of potential applications in clinical medicine, research, etc., with two of the more important foreseeable applications being stem cell enrichment/isolation, and cancer cell purging.