Use of membrane separation device for extraction of intracellular protein and DNA

Abstract

In this paper, a membrane separation device is proposed and demonstrated to be able to lyse cells and extract intracellular protein and DNA. The device consists of cell pretreatment chamber, microfiltration unit, membrane separation unit, fluid reservoir unit and control units. The pretreatment method incorporates chemical lysis reagents and mechanical vibration induced by a micro-pump to perform cell lysis. The membrane separation module is equipped with a replaceable membrane. The ultrafiltration membrane and silica membrane are used to extract intracellular protein and DNA, respectively. The results show that the cell lysis can be achieve effectively by the pretreatment unit at the help of vibration on the membrane. The target protein was obtained using UF membrane with different molecular weight cut-off, and the silica membrane in the device had an excellent ability of extraction of intracellular DNA. The working device suggests an inexpensive, easy to be fabricated and effective method for cell lysis and extraction of intracellular protein and DNA. The resulting extraction is suitable for downstream protein and nucleic acid analysis and detection without requiring further preparation. This device can be easily integrated with other downstream components to develop a customized biological samples analytic system.