Abstract

Abstract Magnetic cell sorting has been widely used to isolate different cell types as it is a fast and reliable method to obtain discrete populations with high purity and yield. However, to maintain cell functionality with this approach has been concerned for different studies. To address this, the cells were isolated with our recently developed MojoSort™ isolation kit using commercially available magnetic cell separation column, and compared that with other commercial magnetic column related products. The stickiness of the magnetic particles of those isolated cells were then imaged with electron microscope, and the cellular functionality was tested by activation of MAPK/ERK pathway and cell proliferation assay. Our data show that MojoSort™ negative isolated cells with MojoSort™ separator or magnetic column do not display beads on cell surface, phosphorylation of ERK1/2 level did not increase as detected by western blot, and the isolated cells showed fully functional. In addition, both positively isolated cells with either MojoSort™ kit or magnetic separation column related kit preserved functionality. Furthermore, MojoSort™ isolated cells only have <10% of particles covered on the cell surface. Finally, when analyzing positively selected cells using MojoSort™ kit with MojoSort™ magnet, we observed a higher number of beads on the cell surface as compared to cells isolated using separation columns, but the cells still maintain their functionality. Thus, our data demonstrates that cells isolated with MojoSort™ reagents are viable and functional, independently of the magnetic separator used, either column-based or handheld magnet.