Use of a licensed electrolyte solution as an alternative to tissue culture medium for bone marrow collection

Bone marrow for transplantation is traditionally collected into tissue culture medium with heparin. A licensed electrolyte solution (Plasma-Lyte A [PLA]) was used as a substitute for tissue culture medium in the harvesting of 28 bone marrows, 17 autologous and 11 allogeneic, which were subsequently transplanted. Data that were analyzed from the 25 evaluable patients consisted of the numbers of cells and colony-forming units in the transplanted marrow as well as the time to neutrophil and platelet engraftment. These results were compared with those in the 30 (26 evaluable) preceding transplanted marrows that were collected into a tissue culture medium (RPMI-1640 [RPMI]). The autologous marrow transplant patients in both the PLA and RPMI groups reached a neutrophil count of > or = 0.5 x 10(9) per L a mean of 19 days following transplantation. The patients who underwent transplantation with allogeneic bone marrow collected in RPMI achieved > or = 0.5 x 10(9) per L of neutrophils an average of 20 days following transplantation, while those who received marrow collected in PLA achieved engraftment of neutrophils to that level in a mean of 21 days. Because in vitro and in vivo results with RPMI and PLA are similar in this study, further work using a licensed solution for clinical bone marrow transplantation is indicated.