Characterization of peripheral blood progenitor cells mobilized by cytotoxic chemotherapy and recombinant human...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antigenic profile of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)-mobilized peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPC) in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), Hodgkin's disease (HD), and multiple myeloma (MM). The mobilization regimens consisted of high-dose cytarabine/mitoxantrone for patients with NHL, DexaBEAM for patients with HD, and high-dose cyclophosphamide (4 or 7 g per m2) for patients with MM. Cytotoxic therapy was supported by recombinant human G-CSF (Filgrastim, 300 micrograms/day sc) to shorten the period of neutropenia and to increase the number of circulating hematopoietic progenitor cells. The mean numbers of circulating CD34+ cells/microliters during leukocyte recovery were different between patient groups, 80.5 +/- 9.8 (mean +/- SEM) in low-grade NHL and 51.2 +/- 9.7 in high-grade NHL compared with 31.3 +/- 6.9 in HD and 24.4 +/- 4.1 in patients with MM. As a result, the greatest numbers of CD34+ cells/kg collected per leukapheresis were observed in patients with NHL, whereas the collection efficiency was substantially lower in patients with HD or MM. Patients with MM had also the smallest proportion of CD34+ cells in the mononuclear cell fraction (mean 0.79 +/- 0.10% versus 2.15 +/- 0.19% in low-grade NHL) but the greatest proportion of early CD34+ HLA-DR- progenitor cells (mean 2.38 +/- 0.51 versus 0.84 +/- 14% in low-grade NHL). Patients with MM had a mean proportion of CD34/c-kit+ cells that was twofold greater than that observed in patients with high- or low-grade NHL.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)