Carbonyl Iron Particles in Magnetic Cell Sorting

Iron-dextran microspheres are easily and inexpensively made by coating uniformly sized carbonyl iron particles with dextran. The iron-dextran spheres can be conjugated with a variety of ligands (antibodies, lectins, avidin, etc.) and used with a permanent rare earth magnet to remove cells, organelles, or macromolecules from mixtures and suspensions. The spheres can be stored indefinitely for use when they are needed. Results obtained with iron-dextran particles in magnetic cell sorting are comparable to those with commercial products. They are particularly helpful when large numbers of cells are to be sorted or when a large panel of antibodies is needed.