Removal by centrifugation of leukocytes and red cells from apheresis platelets

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Platelets prepared by discontinuous flow centrifugation contain significant numbers of leukocytes and red cells. Platelet products often are centrifuged further to remove this cellular contamination. A method is described by which platelet products obtained by cytapheresis were prepared using an additional slow centrifugation step (121 .times. g for 7.5 min). In a production environment, an average of 97% of leukocytes and most of the contaminating red cells were removed with this method, while retaining 89% of the platelets in the final product. This method is an improvement over methods described previously and was consistently effective in routine use.