Rapid isolation of extracellular vesicles from stem cell conditioned medium using osmosis-driven filtration

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) hold significant promise as biomarkers and therapeutics, yet their isolation remains challenging due to low abundance and complex sample matrices. Here, we introduce the EV-Osmoprocessor (EVOs), a novel device that leverages osmosis-driven filtration for rapid and efficient EV isolation. EVOs employs a high osmolarity polymer solution to concentrate EVs while simultaneously removing smaller contaminants. Compared to traditional methods such as ultracentrifugation and precipitation, EVOs offers speed and convenience, achieving a 50-fold volume reduction in under 2 hours. Our results show that EVOs retained EVs and removed > 99% albumin from cell conditioned culture medium (CCM). The isolated EVs exhibited a particle size distribution centered around 140 nm, which was very similar to EVs isolated via precipitation or ultracentrifugation. The standalone EVOs process achieved a particle:protein ratio (EV purity) of ~ 107 particles/µg protein. Comprehensive characterization, including cryo-electron microscopy, validation of protein markers and known miRNA cargo confirmed the successful isolation of EVs. Functional assays, based on protection of cardiomyocytes from hypoxia/reoxygenation injury, demonstrated the bioactivity of EVOs-isolated EVs. Furthermore, we show that EVOs can be used to concentrate 30 ml of CCM into a 0.5 ml solution, which was then further processed with size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), improving EV purity to ~ 109 particles/µg protein. This work establishes EVOs as a promising tool for EV research and clinical applications, offering a streamlined approach to EV isolation with enhanced analytical performance.