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  • Subcellular Fractionation o...
    Carosi, Julian M; Hattersley, Kathryn J; Cui, Yi; Yang, Zhe; Teasdale, Rohan D; Sargeant, Timothy J

    Bio-protocol, 09/2019, Letnik: 9, Številka: 18
    Journal Article

    The enrichment of lysosomes is a useful way to study their structure and function. These dynamic vesicles can be enriched from cell cultures in a variety of ways including immunoprecipitation and fluorescence-activated organelle sorting. These methods are extremely precise but often require the transfection and expression of an affinity or fluorophore-tagged lysosomal membrane protein. A simpler approach uses differential density of subcellular organelles, which are characteristic to a particular type of organelle. Separation of organelles along a density-gradient enables fractionation to enrich for specific organelles (such as lysosomes) in their native state. This protocol outlines an optimized method for enriching lysosomes from HeLa cells with a continuous density-gradient that contains Percoll. Gentle cell lysis and extraction conditions yield dense-fractions that are enriched with functional and intact lysosomes, which can be assayed in downstream analyses. This method is quick (conducted in less than 2 h after harvesting cells), and can be easily scaled and optimized for other cell types.