title: Acoustic purification of extracellular microvesicles.
abstract: Microvesicles (MVs) are an increasingly important source for biomarker discovery and clinical diagnostics. The small size of MVs and their presence in complex biological environment, however, pose technical challenges in sample preparation, particularly when sample volumes are small. We herein present an acoustic nanofilter system that size-specifically separates MVs in a continuous and contact-free manner. The separation uses ultrasound standing waves to exert differential acoustic force on MVs according to their size and density. By optimizing the design of the ultrasound transducers and underlying electronics, we were able to achieve a high separation yield and resolution. The "filter size-cutoff" can be controlled electronically in situ, which enables versatile MV-size selection. We applied the acoustic nanofilter to isolate nanoscale (<200 nm) vesicles from cell culture media as well as MVs in stored red blood cell products. With the capacity for rapid and contact-free MV isolation, the developed system could become a versatile preparatory tool for MV analyses.
authors: †Center for Systems Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, 185 Cambridge Street, CPZN 5206, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, United States.
authors: Kyungheon
authors: K
authors: Lee
authors: †Center for Systems Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, 185 Cambridge Street, CPZN 5206, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, United States.
authors: Huilin
authors: H
authors: Shao
authors: †Center for Systems Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, 185 Cambridge Street, CPZN 5206, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, United States.|‡Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States.
authors: Ralph
authors: R
authors: Weissleder
authors: †Center for Systems Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, 185 Cambridge Street, CPZN 5206, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, United States.
authors: Hakho
authors: H
authors: Lee
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D002458:Cell Fractionation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D055252:Cell-Derived Microparticles; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000166:cytology; D055354:Exosomes; D006801:Humans; D014159:Transducers
keywords: acoustic wave; microfluidics; microvesicles; nanoparticle separation; nanotechnology