Investigating the Potential of Cellular Focusing and Separation by Capillary Isotachophoresis

Capillary isotachophoresis has long been a useful technique for small molecule separations. This research serves to investigate its potential in the separation of whole cell mixtures. The behaviors of bacterial and fungal species in standard capillary zone electrophoresis are compared to those in isotachophoresis in order to make qualitative assessments. Electrophoretic mobility ranges of different cell species were cataloged and bracketed with ions of higher and lower mobility in isotachphoresis. It is likely that the focusing abilities of isotachophoresis will be able to overcome band broadening caused by heterogeneity in cell cultures and the formation of cellular aggregates. The collected data suggests isotachophoresis may be potentially used in standardized testing of unknown cell cultures