title: Quick and effective method of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell extraction.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are currently exploited in numerous clinical trials to investigate their potential in immune regulation, hematopoesis or tissue regeneration. The most common source of MSCs for clinical use is human bone marrow. To generate sufficient numbers of cells relevant to clinical use in most cases the high volumes (20-50 ml) of bone marrow aspirates are taken.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this pilot study, 8 healthy bone marrow donors were included. Two different MSC extraction methods were evaluated: MSCs extraction from 60 ml of bone marrow using density gradient and MSCs extraction from 6 ml using red blood cell (RBC) lysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our results showed that after RBC lysis the efficient amount of human MSCs can be isolated from 10 times less bone marrow volume (6 ml). Moreover, using small volume of bone marrow the adequate therapeutical dose of MSCs could be achieved during similar period of time (3-4 weeks). In conclusion, we have shown that MSCs isolation using RBC lysis is an effective and more advantageous method in comparison to standard MSCs isolation using density-gradient. Using RBC lysis from small volume of bone marrow the same amount of MSCs were obtained as usually using large volume and density-gradient.
authors.affiliation: National Cancer Institute, Biobank, Santariskiu 1, 08660 Vilnius, Lithuania, tel. +37052190909, fax. +37052720164.
authors.forename: Zivile
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gudleviciene
authors.affiliation: National Cancer Institute, Biobank Santariskiu 1, 08660 Vilnius, Lithuania Vilnius University, Faculty of Natural Sciences M.K. Ciurlionio 21/27, 03101 Vilnius.
authors.forename: Gabrielis
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kundrotas
authors.affiliation: National Cancer Institute, Biobank Santariskiu 1, 08660 Vilnius, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Regina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liudkeviciene
authors.affiliation: Children's Hospital, Affiliate of Vilnius Unversity Hospital Santariskiu Klinikos, Children Heamatology and Transplantation Center Santariskiu 7, 08406, Vilnius, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Jelena
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rascon
authors.affiliation: Cryo-Save Labs NV, Attn. The Cell Factory (R&D department) Galileilaan 19, B-2845 Niel, Belgium.
authors.forename: Marcin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jurga
keywords: Bone marrow; Cell therapy; Ficoll gradient; Mesenchymal stem cells; Red blood cell lysis