High Speed Enrichment

The High Speed Enrichment Technique

In applications where it is desirable to collect a large number of a small percentage of positive cells (5% or less of the total, for example), the TSRI FACStar Plus and Vantage can do High Speed enrichment sorts at rates up to 35,000 cells/second (or at roughly 1 cell/drop). The losses increase over those seen in standard sorting techniques, up to 50% in some cases. This does allow, however, a rapid selection where up to 120 million cells/hour can be run through the sorter to yield a 5 to 10 fold enrichment. The enriched population may then be either sorted again using standard techniques or used "as is" if a 50% purity is acceptable for the application. We have used this technique to turn 10 hour sorts into 1 hour sorts, which benefits greatly the investigator that has little difficulty obtaining enough starting material and dreads waiting 10 hours for the yield and the subsequent bill. We recommend doubling the amount of cells to start with, if possible, to negate any losses incurred using this technique. For more on this, check the Cytometry E-Mail archives at Purdue.