Processing of human cord blood by three different procedures for red blood cell depletion and mononuclear cell recovery.
OBJECTIVE
Human cord blood (CB) is an important source of stem cells which may be used for hematopoietic reconstitution as an alternative to bone marrow transplantation. Banking of CB would be accomplished by removing red blood cells (RBC) and plasma from CB collections. Our aim was to compare three different procedures for CB processing.


METHODS
Poligeline, hydroxyethyl starch gel (HES) and gelatin were used as separation media in processing 79 CB units for RBC depletion and mononuclear cell (MNC) recovery.


RESULTS
The best MNC recoveries were obtained performing the HES- and the gelatin-based procedures (80.9 and 84.7%, respectively), but the gelatin procedure allowed us to obtain the highest RBC depletion (96.4%); CD34+ cell recovery was higher using HES or gelatin as separation media (85.6 and 85.9%, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
The best results, as far as RBC removal and MNC recovery are concerned, were obtained by using gelatin as RBC sedimentation medium. Gelatin is a low-cost, animal-derived reagent, which has been successfully used for CB transplantation; the procedure is simple to perform and appears to be suitable for large-scale banking in view of CB transplantation.
Hematology Laboratory, Hematology and Oncology Department, G. Gaslini Children's Hospital, Genova, Italy.
P
P
Perutelli
S
S
Catellani
L
L
Scarso
P
P
Cornaglia-Ferraris
G
G
Dini
D001781:Blood Component Removal; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods*; D017707:Erythrocyte Transfusion; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000166:cytology*; D005780:Gelatin; D006801:Humans; D006895:Hydroxyethyl Starch Derivatives; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000166:cytology; D011097:Polygeline
D006895:Hydroxyethyl Starch Derivatives; D005780:Gelatin; D011097:Polygeline