How do anxiety affect CD34 and CD3 cells in allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation?

Allogeneic peripheral blood stem cells (PBHSCs) transplantation using apheresis is a curative method for malignant and non-malignant hematologic diseases. The aim of this study was to assess the possible effects of anxiety as well as other variables on PBHSCs apheresis success. In this cross-sectional study, different demographic and clinical data such as granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) dosage, CD 34⁺ cells count (before apheresis), CD 34⁺, CD3⁺ cells count in apheresis product and also complete blood count were assessed. Furthermore, for evaluation of anxiety level in donors, the Beck's anxiety inventory (BAI) was administered. In this study, 111 donors were randomly enrolled after meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results of BAI showed the mean score of 22.85 ± 15.43 (mild to moderate anxiety) for the participants. According to the bootstrapped quantile regression analysis, a statistically significant linear association was found between CD34⁺ cell count and BAI score (P-value < 0.001) after adjusting for confounding variables. Moreover, the BAI score had a statistically significant effect on CD3⁺ cells count (P-value = 0.021) after adjusting for confounding variables. Taken together, results showed that anxiety affects both CD34⁺ and CD3⁺ cells count. Thus, the authors suggest that anxiety levels would be evaluated as well as other variables in donors in order to run a proper intervention by professionals.