Abstract:

It is a new strategy to immobilize cells on the inner wall of a capillary column and use affinity capillary electrophoresis (ACE) to study receptor-ligand interactions or to screen natural products and compounds synthesized by combinatorial chemistry. In this paper, we developed a new method of immobilizing HEK293 cells on the inner wall of a capillary column. Four important experimental conditions were optimized, including cell injection density, PLL concentration, cell culturing time and sterile processing method. Immobilized cell-coated capillary columns prepared under the optimized experimental conditions exhibited good uniformity, stability and durability, which were suitable for capillary electrophoresis. The method could also be used to immobilize HEK293 cells over-expressing certain membrane receptors on the inner wall of a capillary. In this way, cell-coated capillary columns could be applied to ACE drug screening targeting certain membrane proteins.

Key words: Cell immobilization, Affinity capillary electrophoresis, Molecular interactions, Drug screening, Stationary phase