ABSTRACT
Centrifugal elutriation results in a relatively large volume of the fractions. When a flow rate of 18 mL/min is used, the fractions are usually 150 mL (16,21). When larger separation chambers are used, the volume of the fractions increases. We previously designed an elutriation system (22) composed of two elutriator rotors in line (Fig. 3). Separation is carried out by the first rotor, and fractions are collected by the rotor spinning at a higher speed. Fractions are collected by reversing the flow in the second rotor (22). Thus, we were able to reduce the volume of fractions to 25 mL. Recently, we have coupled a standard chamber with a separation chamber twice as large, both mounted on the same rotor. Cells elutriated from the standard chamber are, because of the different hydrodynamic profile, concentrated in the second, larger chamber (unpublished results). This has the advantage that fractions are concentrated using only one rotor.
