Harvesting of committed hematopoietic progenitor cells (CFU‐GM) by hemapheresis

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Abstract
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 < 0.001) or a plateletapheresis modified by either using HES during the collection (49%, p < 0.05) or pretreating the donors with steroids in an attempt to raise circulating stem cell levels prior to harvesting (46%, p < 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.