Hi all
I have been using some amine modified latex micro-beads from Sigma and I have troubles to prevent the beads from aggregating. Every time, as soon as I wash off the original buffer, the beads started to clump. I have tried different PH (6-8), I have tried to add in Glycerol, I have tried to add in 20% Ethanol, but non of these worked. Does anyone have some experience with handling these beads?
Just have got some suggestions that I should be using some cationic surfactant. Which cationic surfactant would you suggest?
The question is what type of working vehicle or environment you are going to use with these beads? Do you need biocompatible or non-biocompatible dispersants for your beads?
These beads will be used to coat with proteins and co-culture with monocytes, so I believe biocompatible dispersants would be ideal.
I have used a bath sonicator for dispersing Dynabead paramagnetic beads, 20-30 min in an ice bath.
Normally, we use amphiphilic proteins, e.g. albumin, to prepare dispersed particle suspensions in cellular or animal exp. We also use certain types of copolymer, such as PEG, PEI or Pluronic etc. to disperse our particles. The mechanisms envolved are that these dispersants can provide either electrostatic or steric hindrance or both to maintain the dispersal status of the particle suspension. All these dispersants are biocompatible below certain concentrations. You can find more detailed info in some of our papers. Let me know if you need more...
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