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Harvesting of committed hematopoietic progenitor cells (CFU-GM) by hemapheresis
In order to investigate collection of committed hematopoietic progenitor cells (CFU-GM) by hemapheresis, four protocols using a discontinuous cell separator (Haemonetics) were evaluated. The combined platelet and granulocytapheresis procedure using hydroxyethyl starch (HES) but no steroids was significantly more efficient (75%) than a standard plateletapheresis (40%, p less than 0.001) or a plateletapheresis modified by either using HES during the collection (49%, p less than 0.05) or pretreating the donors with steroids in an attempt to raise circulating stem cell levels prior to harvesting (46%, p less than 0.001). Donor basal CFU-GM levels were very variable but could be predicted by the circulating lymphocyte levels. In all four protocols, there was a direct correlation between the number of stem cells circulating at the start of the procedure and the final harvest. With this equipment, an appropriate transplant dose of CFU-GM could be provided for a child under 30 kg with less than seven procedures.
In order to investigate collection of committed hematopoietic progenitor cells (CFU-GM) by hemapheresis, four protocols using a discontinuous cell separator (Haemonetics) were evaluated. The combined platelet and granulocytapheresis procedure using hydroxyethyl starch (HES) but no steroids was significantly more efficient (75%) than a standard plateletapheresis (40%, p less than 0.001) or a plateletapheresis modified by either using HES during the collection (49%, p less than 0.05) or pretreating the donors with steroids in an attempt to raise circulating stem cell levels prior to harvesting (46%, p less than 0.001). Donor basal CFU-GM levels were very variable but could be predicted by the circulating lymphocyte levels. In all four protocols, there was a direct correlation between the number of stem cells circulating at the start of the procedure and the final harvest. With this equipment, an appropriate transplant dose of CFU-GM could be provided for a child under 30 kg with less than seven procedures.