Characterization of banked umbilical cord blood hematopoietic progenitor cells and lymphocyte subsets and correlation with ethnicity, birth weight, sex, and type of delivery: a Cord Blood Transplantation (COBLT) Study report.
BACKGROUND
The Cord Blood Transplantation (COBLT) Study banking program was initiated in 1996. The study goals were to develop standard operating procedures for cord blood (CB) donor recruitment and banking and to build an ethnically diverse unrelated CB bank to support a transplantation protocol.


METHODS
The hematopoietic progenitor cell (HPC) and lymphocyte subset (LS) content of approximately 8000 CB units were characterized, and these results were correlated with donor ethnicity, birth weight, gestational age, sex, and type of delivery.


RESULTS
There was a significant correlation of CD34+ cell count with colony-forming unit (CFU)-granulocyte-macrophage (r=0.68, p<0.001), CFU-granulocyte-erythroid-macrophage-megakaryocyte (r=0.52, p<0.001), burst-forming unit-erythroid (BFU-E; r=0.61, p<0.001), and total CFUs (r=0.67, p<0.001). Nucleated red blood cell count was significantly correlated with total CD34+ (r=0.56, p<0.001), total CFU (r=0.50, p<0.001), BFU-E (r=0.48, p<0.001), and counts of CD34+ subsets (p<0.001). Caucasian ethnicity was significantly correlated with higher CD3+/CD4+, CD19+, and CD16+/CD56+ LSs. Furthermore, CD34+/CD38- and CD34+/CD61+ CB units (HPC-C) were significantly lower in African American and Asian persons compared to Caucasian and Hispanic persons. Male sex was associated with significantly fewer CD3+/CD4+, CD19+, and CD16+/CD56+ but increased CD3+/CD8+ LSs (p<0.001). Finally, cesarean section was associated with significantly higher total CFU and CD16+/CD56+ but lower CD3+/CD4+, CD3+/CD8+, and CD19+ LSs.


CONCLUSIONS
These results provide a standard and range for uniformly processed HPC-C progenitor cells and LSs. CB progenitor cells and/or LSs may in the future predict for rapidity of engraftment, incidence of graft-versus-host disease, speed and quality of immunore- constitution, graft-versus-tumor effects, and/or success of gene transfection after CB transplantation.
Cairo
Mitchell S
MS
Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA. mc1310@columbia.edu
Wagner
Elizabeth L
EL
Fraser
John
J
Cohen
Geoff
G
van de Ven
Carmella
C
Carter
Shelly L
SL
Kernan
Nancy A
NA
Kurtzberg
Joanne
J
D018952:Antigens, CD34 / Q000032:analysis; D001724:Birth Weight; D000094902:Blood Banking / Q000379:methods*; D001772:Blood Cell Count; D003114:Colony-Forming Units Assay; D036101:Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D036861:Delivery, Obstetric; D015672:Erythroid Precursor Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006098:Granulocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D016131:Lymphocyte Subsets; D008297:Male; D008533:Megakaryocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D011247:Pregnancy; D012727:Sex Characteristics
D018952:Antigens, CD34