Purification of mammalian cochlear hair cells using small volume Percoll density gradients

A micropurification procedure using a discontinuous Percoll density gradient is described for outer hair cells dissociated from the organ of Corti of the guinea pig. Stable, reproducible gradients can be formed in Pyrex fractionation tubes which have a volume of less than 250 microliters. Hair cells can be harvested from gradients in numbers sufficient for analysis on polyacrylamide gels. The procedure is particularly suited to hair cells, and to other situations in which only a small number of cells are available for purification.