Labeling immune cells with zirconium-89 (89Zr)-oxine has become a viable method to track cells in vivo by PET in various pre-clinical animal models and in clinical applications. Currently, 89Zr-oxine cell labeling is performed manually, which requires a highly trained specialist and is prone to human error. As the first phase in developing a fully automated radiolabeling system to address this problem, we assess the use of acoustophoresis cell washing to replace the centrifugal cell washing used in the current 89Zr-oxine cell radiolabeling procedure. To accomplish this, a cell radiolabeling procedure was developed in which two steps requiring a centrifuge to wash cells were replaced using acoustophoresis cell washing methods. The process was tested using murine EL4 lymphoma and T cells. The centrifuge cell labeling procedure was used as a control to compare the acoustophoresis cell washing procedure. The acoustophoresis method produced radiolabeled cells with similar properties to the centrifugal method when comparing labeling efficiency, labeled specific activity, efficacy of removing unbound 89Zr-oxine from the suspension, cell viability measured using annexin V/propidium iodide staining and activation function. This suggests that acoustophoresis cell washing can be used in the design of an automated benchtop, good manufacture practice-qualified acoustophoresis cell radiolabeling device.
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