Pluripotent and myeloid-committed CD34+ subsets in hematopoietic stem cell allografts

The present study compared the contents of pluripotent and lineage-committed hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) in various types of allografts. Bone marrow (BM) allografts and single leukapheresis products (LPs) collected from G-CSF-mobilized donors contained similar amounts of pluripotent HPCs (CD34(+)CD38(-)) and total CD34(+) cells. However, the content of late-myeloid HPCs (CD34(+)CD33(+)CD15(+)) were significantly higher in BM grafts compared to LPs (P>0.02), whereas the contents of early-myeloid HPCs (CD34(+)CD33(+)CD15-) were 2.5-fold higher in LPs (P<0.03). In comparison to grafts from adult donors, cord blood (CB) grafts contained 26-65-fold lower amounts of early-myeloid HPCs (P<0.001), but only 8-12-fold lower contents of pluripotent HPCs (P<0.04). Additional findings demonstrated that among all tested parameters the numbers of early-myeloid HPCs were the most accurate measure of the total colony-forming cell (CFC) numbers in allografts. Hence, the earlier engraftment observed after transplantation of LPs compared to BM grafts might be explained by the higher content of early-myeloid HPCs/CFCs in LPs. Moreover, the slow engraftment following CB transplantation might not be affected essentially by the low number of myeloid HPCs, but rather by pluripotent HPCs. Finally, this study reports a new gating strategy for the enumeration of pluripotent CD34(+)CD38(-) subsets.