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Biophysical Journal 84:2638-2645 (2003)
© 2003 The Biophysical Society

Red Blood Cell Magnetophoresis

Maciej Zborowski*, Graciela R. Ostera{dagger}, Lee R. Moore*, Sarah Milliron{ddagger}, Jeffrey J. Chalmers§ and Alan N. Schechter{dagger}

* Department of Biomedical Engineering/ND20, Lerner Research Institute, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio 44915; {dagger} Laboratory of Chemical Biology, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892; {ddagger} Department of Biomedical Engineering/ND20, Lerner Research Institute, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio 44915, and University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606; and § Department of Chemical Engineering, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210

Correspondence: Address reprint requests to Maciej Zborowski, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering/ND20, Lerner Research Institute, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 9500 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44915. Tel.: 216-445-9330; Fax: 216-444-9198; E-mail: zborow{at}bme.ri.ccf.org.

The existence of unpaired electrons in the four heme groups of deoxy and methemoglobin (metHb) gives these species paramagnetic properties as contrasted to the diamagnetic character of oxyhemoglobin. Based on the measured magnetic moments of hemoglobin and its compounds, and on the relatively high hemoglobin concentration of human erythrocytes, we hypothesized that differential migration of these cells was possible if exposed to a high magnetic field. With the development of a new technology, cell tracking velocimetry, we were able to measure the migration velocity of deoxygenated and metHb-containing erythrocytes, exposed to a mean magnetic field of 1.40 T and a mean gradient of 0.131 T/mm, in a process we call cell magnetophoresis. Our results show a similar magnetophoretic mobility of 3.86 x 10-6 mm3 s/kg for erythrocytes with 100% deoxygenated hemoglobin and 3.66 x 10-6 mm3 s/kg for erythrocytes containing 100% metHb. Oxygenated erythrocytes had a magnetophoretic mobility of from -0.2 x 10-6 mm3 s/kg to +0.30 x 10-6 mm3 s/kg, indicating a significant diamagnetic component relative to the suspension medium, in agreement with previous studies on the hemoglobin magnetic susceptibility. Magnetophoresis may open up an approach to characterize and separate cells for biochemical analysis based on intrinsic and extrinsic magnetic properties of biological macromolecules.




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Y. Jing, N. Mal, P. S. Williams, M. Mayorga, M. S. Penn, J. J. Chalmers, and M. Zborowski
Quantitative intracellular magnetic nanoparticle uptake measured by live cell magnetophoresis
FASEB J, December 1, 2008; 22(12): 4239 - 4247.
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