Cell separation by countercurrent centrifugal elutriation: recent developments.

Countercurrent centrifugal elutriation (CCE) is a cell separation technique that separates particles predominantly according to their size, and to some degree according to their specific density, without a need for antibodies or ligands tagging cell surfaces. The principles of this technique have been known for half a century. Still, numerous recent publications confirmed that CCE is a valuable supplement to current cell separation technology. It is mainly applied when homogeneous populations of cells, which mirror an in vivo situation, are required for answering scientific questions or for clinical transplantation, while antibodies or ligands suitable for cell isolation are not available. Currently, new technical developments are expanding its application toward fractionation of healthy and malignant tissue cells and the preparation of dendritic cells for immunotherapy.