Table 1 of Gooding, Mol Vis 2018; 24:690-699.
Method | References | Principle | Volume | Cell types | Comments | Equipment cost |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ottawa Sand | [6]; patent by DuPont for sand milling US 2855156 A | Sand milling and grinding | ml | Mammalian tissues | Particulates may carry through; messy | Negligible |
Thomas or Potter-Elvehjem | [3] | Shearing by motorized pestle | ml | Mammalian tissues | Slow, one sample at a time; heating | Homogenizers $100-$200; Motor, $thousands |
Aminco-French pressure cells | [7] | High shear by passing through a narrow orifice | 50+ ml | Even suspensions of dilute bacteria | Complicated, expensive, large volumes, susceptible to clogging and fouling, one sample at a time | $tens of thousands |
Stomacher | [8] | Kneading | 100+ ml to liters | Detaching bacteria from biofilms, plant matter, pathologic tissue | One large sample at a time, slow | $thousands |
Waring blender | [1] | Chopping with high speed rotating blades | 30 ml to liters | Mammalian tissues | One sample at a time, large volume, heating | 200 |
Freeze-thawing or freeze-crush, also called cryo-impacting | [9,10] | Pulverization; shattering on freeze planes | < 1 gram per sample | Mammalian tissues | Good for multiple and small samples; slow, tedious; requires much dry ice or LN2; difficult to keep the samples dry; difficult recovery of crushed tissues; risk of spillage; messy | negligible |
Bead-beating | [11,12] | Tissues are squashed and pulverized between much more massive and hard beads | < 1 gram per sample | Mammalian tissues | Multiple beads can be damaged in colliding with each other fracturing the beads often glass, zirconium, or silica. Ceramic and stainless steel are more durable. Temperature climbs rapidly with bead beating up to 10 °C per minute | $thousands |
Sonication | Weaver, C.E. US patent: US2163650 -1939 | Ultrasound generates microcavitation bubbles that explode in tissues dispersing them | < 1 gram per sample | Mammalian tissues | efficient, but slow; one or few samples at a time; cross contamination, oxidation; heating a major problem | $thousands |
Double ended syringe needles (micro-emulsifying needles) | High shear by passing through a narrow orifice | < 1 gram per sample | Only suspensions of cells | Sclera will not pass through an 18 gauge needle. Clogging and fouling, slow, difficult, but manual | 100 | |
Centrifugation through successively smaller holes | [13] | High shear by passing through a narrow orifice | < 1 gram per sample | Soft tissues (brain, liver); suspensions cultured cells; blood cells. | Prone to clogs | $Negligible |
The Willems polytron with a rotor-stator and similar devices | US patents 2789800 A, 2541221 A | Chopping with high speed rotating blades | 1-10 grams per sample | Mammalian tissues | Very efficient, difficult to clean | $Thousands |
Dissolved Nitrogen gas decompression Aka the Parr Bomb | [14,15]. | Dissolved N2 produces gas bubbles on rapid decompression that explode in tissues dispersing them | < 1 gram per sample | Mammalian tissues | Efficient; difficult to clean; Slow | $Thousands |
Dounce | [1,2] | High shear by passing between a glass pestle and a glass cylinder | <10 grams | Soft tissues | difficult to clean; Slow; messy; manual | 100 |