SEPARATION OF T-LYMPHOCYTES AND B-LYMPHOCYTES FROM HUMAN PERIPHERAL-BLOOD MONONUCLEAR-CELLS USING DENSITY PERTURBATION-METHODS

The fractionation of sub-populations of peripheral blood mononuclear c ells has become an essential routine procedure and some of the main fr actionation methods used today are: immunomagnetic separations. We des cribe a less expensive method for the separation of subpopulations of mononuclear cells using density perturbation, which uses the binding o f antibody-coated dense polystyrene beads to increase the density of s pecific sub-populations of cells. By incubating a total mononuclear fr action from human peripheral blood together with antibody-coated beads , in a commercially-available lymphocyte separation medium (Nycoprep 1 .077), a depletion of 94.9 +/- 1.68% of the T cells could be obtained by this procedure; a depletion of 69.7 +/- 1.78% of the B cells was al so achieved. These results indicate the potential for the separation o f different sub-populations of peripheral blood mononuclear cells on t he basis of the immunological identity of the surface of cells using d ensity perturbation methods involving antibody-coated dense polystyren e beads.