Braking Ramps

But when do I need this? How can different acceleration/braking (acc/dec) ramps help with my applications? To understand the importance of the adjustment of acc/dec ramps, read the following two examples:

For applications such as bacteria pelleting in microliter tubes or the extraction of DNA/RNA, it is not necessary to adjust acceleration and braking ramps. Other applications – such as the isolation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) via density gradient centrifugation (for example with Ficoll-Paque® Plus) – benefit greatly from adjustment.* With PBMC isolation, the goal is to achieve a clear interphase (containing the PBMCs) and extract them from the blood sample. This interphase is very sensitive to vibration and a too-fast acceleration or deceleration would disturb the gradient and lead to a milky/non-existent interphase, making it difficult or nearly impossible to extract the PBMC.

To prevent remixing the phases, the protocol requires that acceleration/deceleration be shut off completely so that the centrifuge accelerates slowly and high forces cannot disturb the gradient. During the run, the different blood components can pass through the gradient and accumulate in the appropriate phase according to their density. When the brake is shut off, the centrifuge simply runs down until the rotor stops by itself. This way, the gradient will not be disturbed by sudden braking.