GE Healthcare
Life Sciences
Cell separation pure and
simple for over 30 years
GE Healthcare Life Sciences has been developing and manufacturing
density gradient centrifugation media for over 30 years. Based on a
tested and established technique used by labs worldwide, our Ficoll-Paque™ and Percoll™ products provide simple and efficient
separation of a wide variety of human, animal, and bacterial
cells; subcellular particles and larger
viruses giving high yields and purity at
low cost in a range of applications.
Percoll and Percoll PLUS
Ready-to-use Ficoll-Paque products
Since its introduction in 1977, Percoll has become the density
gradient medium of choice for thousands of researchers
worldwide and cited in thousands of publications in well
recognized journals. Percoll and Percoll PLUS are silica-based
density gradient media and their nearly ideal physical
characteristics facilitate its use in separating cells, organelles,
viruses, and other subcellular particles.
Ficoll-Paque products are sterile, ready-to-use solutions
for small- or large-scale isolation of high yields of viable
mononuclear cells from whole human peripheral blood, bone
marrow, and umbilical cord blood. They are tested for low levels
of endotoxin (< 0.12 EU/ml) . Ficoll-Paque products are stable
for at least three years when stored at room temperature and
protected from light.
Percoll comprises silica particles coated with polyvinylpyrrolidone
(PVP) and is commonly used in basic research applications.
Percoll PLUS comprises silane coated silica particles and is
tested for low levels of endotoxin (< 2 EU/ml). Therefore, it is
suitable for the isolation of cells for in vitro clinical research
applications.
Separation of normal whole human peripheral blood (subject
to donor variability) using Ficoll-Paque PLUS or Ficoll-Paque
PREMIUM typically yields a mononuclear cell preparation with:
Both Percoll and Percoll PLUS have a shelf life of five years
when stored at room temperature.
• 95% ± 5% mononuclear cells present in the
separated fraction
• > 80% viability of the separated cells
• 60% ± 20% recovery of the mononuclear cells
present in the original blood sample
• 3% ± 2% granulocytes
• 5% ± 2% red blood cells
Ficoll-Paque PREMIUM for clinical research1
and cell therapy manufacturing applications
Ficoll-Paque PLUS for analytical
research applications
Ficoll-Paque PREMIUM products are manufactured within
a quality management system certified to ISO 13485 and
meet USP <1043> ‘ancillary materials for cell, gene, and
tissue-engineered products’, within the responsibilities
applicable to a supplier2.
Ficoll-Paque PLUS (density 1.077 g/ml) is a recognized standard
in laboratories worldwide for the isolation of mononuclear cells
for analytical research studies. Although optimized for the
isolation of mononuclear cells from human peripheral blood,
Ficoll-Paque PLUS can be adapted for the isolation of human
lymphocytes from other sources, including abdominal, amniotic,
and pleural fluids as well as cord blood and bone marrow (4,
6, 12, 13, 14).
For in vitro isolation.
1
Other aspects of USP <1043> are the responsibility of the end-user. GE Healthcare Life Sciences cannot
fulfill USP <1043> with regards to the application and therapy-specific aspects (e.g., use in finished
therapeutic, assessment of removal from a finished therapeutic and possibly biocompatibility,
cytotoxicity or adventitious agent testing).
2
Ordering information
Description
VWR Cat No.
Ficoll-Paque products
Ficoll-Paque PLUS, 6 × 100 ml
95021-205
Ficoll-Paque PLUS, 6 × 500 ml
95038-168
Ficoll-Paque PREMIUM, 6 × 100 ml
95021-207
Ficoll-Paque PREMIUM, 6 × 500 ml
95038-170
Ficoll-Paque PREMIUM, 1.084, 6 × 100 ml
95040-394
Ficoll-Paque PREMIUM, 1.073, 6 × 100 ml
95040-396
Percoll and Percoll PLUS
A choice of densities
Ficoll-Paque PREMIUM products are available at densities
of 1.077, 1.084, and 1.073 g/ml enabling you to isolate
cell preparations with slightly different density subsets of
mononuclear cells from samples including human peripheral
blood, umbilical cord blood, and bone marrow.
• Ficoll-Paque PREMIUM (1.077): For the isolation of
mononuclear cells from human peripheral blood, bone
marrow, and umbilical cord blood (5, 9, 17)
• Ficoll-Paque PREMIUM 1.084: Optimized for isolating
higher density human mononuclear cells and for
separating blood cells from other species including mice,
rats, and pigs (18, 19)
• Ficoll-Paque PREMIUM 1.073: Optimized for isolating
lower-density human mononuclear cells such as
mesenchymal stromal cells or monocytes (10, 11, 15, 16)
Percoll, 250 ml
89428-522
Percoll, 1 l
89428-524
Percoll PLUS, 250 ml
89428-528
Percoll PLUS, 1 l
89428-530
References
Ficoll-Paque and Percoll products have been extensively cited in publications since their development over
30 years ago. The following is therefore just a representative selection of recent articles. Thousands more can
be found by visiting PubMed and searching for “Ficoll” and “Percoll”. PubMed is a free database accessing
primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics.
Ficoll-Paque
1. Bøyum, A. Isolation of mononuclear cells and granulocytes
from human blood. (Paper IV). Scand. J. Clin. Lab. Invest. 21 Suppl.
97, 77–89 (1968).
15. Chin, S.P., et al., Cryopreserved mesenchymal stromal cell
treatment is safe and feasible for severe dilated ischemic
cardiomyopathy, Cytotherapy, 12(1), 31-7 (2010).
2. Bøyum, A. Isolation of leucocytes from human blood –
further observations. (Paper II). Scand. J. Clin. Lab. Invest. 21 Suppl.
97, 31–50 (1968).
16. Grisendi, G., et al., GMP-manufactured density gradient media
for optimized mesenchymal stromal/stem cell isolation and
expansion, Cytotherapy, 12(4), 466-77 (2010).
3. Chan, J.K., et al., A novel technique for the enrichment of primary
ovarian cancer cells. Am J Obstet. Gynecol, 197(5), 507 (2007).
17. Sürder, D., et al., Cell-based therapy for myocardial repair in patients
with acute myocardial infarction: rationale and study design of
the Swiss multicenter Intracoronary Stem cells Study in Acute
Myocardial Infarction (SWISS-AMI). Am. Heart J. 160(1), 58-64 (2010).
4. Ciccocioppo, R., et al., Reduced number and function of
peripheral dendritic cells in celiac disease. Clin. Exp. Immunol,
146, 487-96 (2007).
5. Figueroa-Tentori, D., et al., High purity and yield of natural
Tregs from cord blood using a single step selection method,
J. Immunol. Methods 339(2), 228-35 (2008).
6. Guia, S., et al., A role for interleukin-12/23 in the maturation
of human natural killer and CD56 T cells in vivo. Blood 111,
5008‑16 (2008).
7. Flaherty, M.P., et al., Noncanonical Wnt11 signaling is sufficient to
induce cardiomyogenic differentiation in unfractionated bone
marrow mononuclear cells. Circulation, 117, 2241-52 (2008).
8. Xu, R., et al., Functional analysis of neuron-like cells differentiated
from neural stem cells derived from bone marrow stroma cells in
vitro. Cell Mol. Neurobiol, 28, 545-58 (2008).
9. Ali, H. et al., Defined serum-free culturing conditions for
neural tissue engineering of human cord blood stem cells.
Acta. Neurobiol. Exp., 69(1), 11-23 (2009).
10. Brooke, G., et al., Manufacturing of human placenta-derived
mesenchymal stem cells for clinical trials. Br. J. Haematol. 144(4),
571-9 (2009).
11. Garayoa, M., et al., Mesenchymal stem cells from multiple
myeloma patients display distinct genomic profile as compared
with those from normal donors, Leukemia 23(8), 1515-27 (2009).
12. Di Cesare, S., et al., The effect of blue light exposure in an ocular
melanoma animal model. J. Exp. Clin. Cancer Res, 28:48, 1-9 (2009).
13. Li, X., et al., Effect of cryopreservation on IL-4, IFNc and IL-6
production of porcine peripheral blood lymphocytes.
Cryobiology 59, 322-6 (2009).
14. Briquet, A., et al., Prolonged ex vivo culture of human bone
marrow mesenchymal stem cells influences their supportive
activity toward NOD/SCID-repopulating cells and committed
progenitor cells of B lymphoid and myeloid lineages.
Haematologica 95(1), 47-56 (2010).
18. Takama, Y., et al., Effects of a calcineurin inhibitor, FK506, and
a CCR5/CXCR3 antagonist, TAK-779, in a rat small intestinal
transplantation model. Transpl. Immunol. 25(1), 49-55 (2011).
19. Naruhn, S., et al., High affinity PPARβ/δ-specific ligands with pure
antagonistic or inverse agonistic properties. Mol. Pharmacol.
(online) published 23 Aug, 2011.
Percoll
20. Pertoft, H., Fractionation of cells and subcellular particles with
Percoll. J. Biochem. Biophys. Methods 44, 1 –30 (2000).
21. Martin, R., et al., The metabotropic glutamate receptor mGlu7
activates phospholipase C, translocates munc-13-1 protein, and
potentiates glutamate release at cerebrocortical nerve
terminals, J. Biol. Chem. 285(23), 17907–17 (2010).
22. Che, X. et al., Rapid isolation of muscle-derived stem cells
by discontinuous Percoll density gradient centrifugation,
In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol.—Animal 47, 454–58 (2011).
23. Kubrycht, J., et al., Isolation of rat lung mast cells for purposes
of one-week cultivation using novel Percoll variant Percoll PLUS.
Physiol. Res. 60(1), 83-93 (2011).
24. Mikolajczyk, S. D., et al., Detection of EpCAM-negative and
cytokeratin-negative circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood.
J. Oncol. (online) published 19 April 2011.
25. Novgorodov, S.A., et al., Novel pathway of ceramide production
in mitochondria. J Biol. Chem. (online) published 25 May 2011.
26. Novgorodov, S. A., et al., Developmentally regulated ceramide
synthase 6 increases mitochondrial Ca2+ loading capacity and
promotes apoptosis, J. Biol. Chem. 286(6), 4644–58 (2011).
27. Dickson et al., Efficient capture of circulating tumor cells
with a novel immunocytochemical microfluidic device.
Biomicrofluidics 5, 034119 (2011).
GE, imagination at work, and GE monogram are trademarks of General Electric Company.
Ficoll-Paque and Percoll are trademarks of GE Healthcare companies.
Ficoll and Percoll products are for in vitro research use or further manufacturing only—
not for use in therapeutic or diagnostic procedures.
© 2011–2014 General Electric Company—All rights reserved. First published Oct. 2011
0114 Lit. No. POD 07116REV