Sedimentation field-flow fractionation device cleaning, decontamination and sterilization procedures for cellular analysis

In Sedimentation FFF (SdFFF) practice, it is known that a large number of cell elutions create aging phenomena of the separator, thereby reducing recovery and modifying elution characteristics. Systematic cleaning procedures are developed to enhance channel lifetime, together with microbial decontamination processes. Cells can be therefore reproducibly eluted for a large number of analyses and collected under sterile conditions, if needed. This is one of the most valuable aspect if further culture or transplantation is required. Decontamination was performed using, as contaminant probe, Staphylococcus aureus, highly adherent pathogenic bacteria that eluted from SdFFF as aggregates. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.