Preparation of PEG-grafted immunomagnetoliposomes entrapping citrate stabilized magnetite particles and their application in CD34+cell sorting

Immunomagnetic systems have been used for positive selection of a cell frac tion from a mixture using appropriate surface markers with satisfactory res ults, as haematopoietic CD34+ cells. This work reports on the development o f poly( ethylene glycol)-grafted (PEG) immunoliposomes loaded with citrate- magnetite stabilized particles as the separation vehicles for immunomagneti c separations. The magnetic ferrofluid was encapsulated into PEG-liposomes by the DRV methodology. The magnetoliposomes had a liposomal size of simila r to 450 nm and a Fe/lipid molar ratio of 1.52 +/- 0.26, and were retained in the magnetic field created by the MiniMACS system. Anti-CD34 immunomagne toliposomes with 100 mAb/vesicle were prepared by coupling the My10 mAb and bound specifically for CD34+ KG-1a cells in culture and in mixtures with C D34-cells (CHO or Jurkat). The magnetic cell sorting was carried out in cel l mixtures KG-1a/CHO or KG-1a/Jurkat with different initial% of CD34+ Kg-1a cells. For 10(6) positive cells and 100 muM of immunomagnetoliposomes, the capture efficiency was > 85% and independent of the starting percentage of CD34+ cells. The decrease of the final purity, when the starting percentag e of CD34+ cells decreases and, dependent of the CD34- cell line used, poin t to the degree of non-specific cell binding of My10-immunomagnetoliposomes as being crucial, among of the methodological aspects as the number of sta rting CD34+ cells. The CD34+ cells isolated retained the viability with an estimated recovery of 45-50%.