title: Placental/umbilical cord blood for unrelated-donor bone marrow reconstitution: relevance of nucleated red blood cells.
abstract: Placental/umbilical cord blood (PCB) is a source of hematopoietic stem cells for bone marrow reconstitution. Engraftment speed and survival are related to the total nucleated cell (TNC) dose of the graft. This study explored the possible influence on engraftment of nucleated red blood cells (NRBCs) in the graft. Automated hematology analyzers were used to enumerate TNCs. NRBCs were counted by visual examination or by using an automated analyzer. Hematopoietic progenitor cells were enumerated as either colony-forming cells or CD34(+) cells. Transplant centers reported on transplant outcome in 1112 patients given PCB grafts through September 2001. NRBCs correlated with progenitor cell numbers. Both white blood cell and NRBC dose were independently predictive of myeloid engraftment speed. Because NRBC dose predicted engraftment speed, inclusion of NRBCs in the TNC count does not reduce the effectiveness of the prefreezing TNC count as an index of the quality of a PCB unit as a graft. The correlation between the number of NRBCs and the number of hematopoietic progenitor cells probably reflects the involvement of early stem cells in erythroid responses.
authors.affiliation: Wolf Szmuness Laboratory of Epidemiology, the F. H. Allen Laboratory of Immunogenetics, and the Laboratory of Hematopoietic Progenitors of the New York Blood Center, New York, NY 10021, USA. cstevens@nybc.org
authors.forename: Cladd E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gladstone
authors.forename: Patricia E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Andromachi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scaradavou
authors.forename: Anna Rita
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Migliaccio
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Visser
authors.forename: N Ludy
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Dobrila
authors.forename: Carmelita
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Carrier
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cabbad
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wernet
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kurtzberg
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rubinstein
mesh_terms: D001854:Bone Marrow Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000502:physiology*; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D010920:Placenta / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation; D014481:United States