Correlations between autograft cellular components and post-transplant outcome in patients with systemic non-Hodgkin...

Limited data exists on detailed cellular content of infused autografts and correlations between autograft cellular components according to plerixafor (PLER) use in the mobilization of blood grafts.

The present study compared cellular content of infused autografts analyzed by flow-cytometry, correlations between various graft cellular components and post-transplant outcome of 159 patients with systemic NHL mobilized with or without on-demand plerixafor.

In PLER mobilized patients (n = 42) the total number of graft CD3⁺ cells was 2.5-fold higher (p < 0.001) and the number of both CD3⁺CD8⁺ cells (p < 0.001) and NK cells (p < 0.001) were almost 3-fold higher compared to non-PLER patients (n = 117). In addition, graft CD3⁺ cell counts correlated with graft NK cell counts (r_s 0.622, p < 0.001) only in non-PLER group. Moreover, graft CD34⁺ cell counts did not correlate with any lymphocyte subtypes of the grafts. Most importantly, PLER use in the mobilization had no impact on progression-free survival or overall survival of the patients.

PLER use impacts significantly on graft cellular composition and correlations between various cellular components without compromising outcome in the patients. Engineering the autograft content by analyzing CD3⁺ cell counts and its main components in the grafts during collection might be important.