Concentration of hematopoietic progenitor cells from human bone marrow by a new type of blood component separator

A new type of blood component separator (BCS) was used for the isolation of hematopoietic progenitor cells from human bone marrow aspirates. The BCS was filled with 100-150 ml bone marrow and centrifuged to prepare a buffy coat. This buffy coat was isolated in 10-15% of the original bone marrow volume and contained 64 +/- 8% of the nucleated cells (NC). Morphological examination revealed that the buffy coat was highly enriched for myeloblasts, promyelocytes, lymphocytes and monocytes, whereas the contamination with granulocytes was reduced to 46 +/- 8% of the granulocytes initially present in the bone marrow suspension. In addition the contamination with red blood cells (RBC) was very low; the buffy coat contained only 6 +/- 2% of the RBC. Furthermore it was demonstrated by means of colony assays that the buffy coat was highly enriched for hematopoietic progenitor cells. It contained 91 +/- 6% of the granulocyte/monocyte progenitor cells (CFU-GM) and 87 +/- 9% of the erythroid progenitor cells (BFU-E). These results are comparable to those obtained with continuous or semicontinuous blood cell processors. The advantages of the BCS is that it is a simple and inexpensive apparatus which fits in a normal blood bank centrifuge. It permits efficient preparation and isolation of a buffy coat from human bone marrow without substantial loss of hematopoietic progenitor cells.