High volume extracellular vesicle separation in microfluidics: proof of principle

Extracellular vesicles (EV) have a potential to serve as novel disease biomarkers, however, currently EV isolation is complicated and with a high variability. Microfluidic devices utilizing multiple phenomena can be of use, however, to date reported devices cannot be used for high volume (>1 ml) samples. Herein, we show a proof of principle device based on asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation (A4F) and bifurcation-based microfluidic device leading to EV-sized bead enrichment of more than 200% and more than 1000% for cell-debrii sized beads. All while EV retention in these devices are more than 30% lower than size exclusion column (SEC) experiments.