Automated Processing of Human Bone Marrow Grafts for Transplantation

Abstract

Prior to purging or cryopreservation, we concentrated 21 bone marrow (BM) harvests using a modification of the 'grancollect-protocol' of the Fresenius AS 104 cell separator with the P1-Y set. Within 40-70 min, the initial marrow volume of 1,265 ml (+/- 537 ml) was processed two to three times. A mean of 47% (+/- 21%) of the initial mononuclear cells was recovered in a mean volume of 128 ml (+36 ml). The recovery of clonogenic cells, measured by CFU-GM assays, was 68% (+/- 47%). Red blood cells in the BM concentrates were reduced to 7% (+/- 4%) of the initial number. The procedure was efficient and yielded a BM cell fraction suitable for purging, cryopreservation and transplantation. At this time, 10 of the 21 patients whose BM was processed using this technique have been transplanted. Seven of these 10 patients have been grafted using the BM alone. Three of the 10 patients showed reduced cell viability and colony growth in the thawed BM samples, and therefore obtained BM and peripheral blood-derived stem cells. All transplanted patients showed an evaluable engraftment, achieving 1,000 granulocytes per microliter of peripheral blood in a mean of 18 days.

Cord blood processing with an automated and functionally closed system

“…The latter findings comply with the experiences obtained in marrow processing. 28 Further studies must show whether repeated processing of the RBC and plasma fraction leads to increased CEs in automated UCB processing as well.…”

“…Furthermore, both techniques lack the capacity for enriching MNCs while depleting granulocytes. It is known from marrow processing that this specific enrichment of MNCs and HPCs can be achieved, [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] leading to MNC and HPC CEs of more than 95 percent, while the number of granulocytes and RBCs is reduced in comparison to the initial cell suspension. Therefore, this new device needs further improvements for increasing the specific CE.…”

Comparison of two leukapheresis programs for computerized collection of blood progenitor cells on a new cell separator

“…There are limited amounts of data in the literature concerning the processing of marrow grafts and the harvesting of PBPCs on the Fresenius cell separators AS104 and AS.TEC204. 18,20,22,[36][37][38][39] Leibundgut et al 18 (AS104) and Moog et al 39 (AS.TEC204) reported on the CD34+ cell dose collected, but they provided no data concerning the CD34-CEs and the MNC/CD34+ cell percentages of the concentrates collected. Bambi and colleagues, 22 who used the LP-PBSC-Lym software on the AS104 to obtain 24 PBPC harvests from pediatric patients, achieved a mean CD34+ cell extraction efficiency of 42 percent and a MNC percentage of 78 percent in the harvested components.…”

International Forum. Evaluation of the single needle procedure in plateletpheresis with the fresenius as 104 blood cell separator

“…All separation procedures are automatically controlled by an interface system and sensitive detectors and monitors. The AS 104 device is mostly used for plateletpheresis [ 1-91, although there are protocols for bone marrow concentration [8,10], combined plateletpheresis [ 1 1,121, granulocyte collection [ 131, lymphocyte depletion, monocyte collection, peripheral blood stem cell collection [8,14,15], plasma collection or exchange [8], and red cell collection [ 161. Platelet separation can be performed by a dual needle (DN) or a single needle (SN) procedure.…”