Exosome Isolation By Tangential Flow Filtration And Size Exclusion Chromatography

By Jon Lundqvist, Cytiva and David Haylock, VivaZome

Exosomes, a subset of extracellular vesicles (EVs), play vital roles in intercellular communication and various physiological processes. Their enrichment and concentration from biological samples are essential for studying exosome functions and clinical applications as well as for drug delivery and therapeutic production. However, a major challenge for exosome manufacturing is the enrichment and concentration of exosomes from cell culture supernatants (CCS) that contain a mix of nanosized EVs. While ultracentrifugation and density gradient separation are effective techniques for research purposes, they are not easily scalable.

Tangential flow filtration (TFF) and size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) are commonly used for exosome enrichment from complex biological fluids. By combining these gentle purification methods, most host-cell protein (HCP) and DNA can be removed, ensuring high recovery rates and minimal loss of biological activity. Here, we demonstrate a scalable workflow for the isolation of exosomes that combines TFF for exosome concentration and gentle SEC.