Cell specific Sonication - How different are cell types (Jun/14/2005 )

I have had problems sonicating leukemia cells (suspension) to get a size
under 1kb. Even at power 4 (fisher 550) with 13, 15 second bursts its still ~1kb.
However, in attached cells like Hela or MCF-7 I do not encounter this problem.
Is it just me?
How different are the conditions for sonication between cell types?

sure different cell types have different shearing properties under sonication.

Things to note, the solution should not froth, if this is so the efficency goes down to zero.


You could try and lower the power setting more. This seems to help with our human lymphoblasts. Also check out other tips of the trade in the following discussion:
Sonication and other woes

good luck!

Nick