Bioo Scientific has launched the Exomir kit for the fractionation of and RNA extraction from exosomes and other microparticles in cell-free fluids.
Exosomes are membrane-covered microparticles shed by cells into bodily fluids, such as blood and urine, and also shed into the media used to culture eukaryotic cells.
Recent research has highlighted the role of small membrane-bound particles such as exosomes and microvesicles as intercellular mediators of biological information.
The release of these microparticles may increase in number and type during pathological conditions, especially malignancies.
These tumour exosomes contain nucleic acid sequences of a cancer's genetic material.
Traditional methods to recover exosomes require ultracentrifugation of samples at high centrifugal force (~100,000 x g or more) for at least several hours to pellet the particles.
The Exomir kit uses an alternative approach in which samples (~10mL-30mL) are passed over syringe filters to capture exosomes and larger membrane-bound particles.
The filters are then flushed with Bioopure-MP, an RNA extraction reagent, to lyse the captured particles and release their contents.
Recovery of the low mass amounts of RNA from the lysates is maximised by using the inert co-precipitant included in the kit.
Cell-free fluids that can be processed with the Exomir kit include blood serum, cerebrospinal fluid and eukaryotic cell culture media.
Dr Marianna Goldrick, senior scientist at Bioo Scientific, said: 'The Exomir kit reduces the labour and costs required for microRNA profiling on particles recovered from cell-free fluids.
'When used along with Bioo Scientific's Miramas kit for qPCR detection of small RNAs, researchers can rapidly and inexpensively carry out small RNA profiling studies using a variety of cell-free fluids.'
