Red Blood cell depletion and/or volume reduction in bone marrow processing: a comparison of two methods
2Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv, Israel, Israel
BACKGROUND: Red blood cell (RBC) depletion and volume reduction of Bone Marrow (BM) grafts is often required due to donor:recipient ABO incompatibility or due to high volume of harvested BM relative to recipient weight. We have compared two methods of BM RBC depletion and volume reduction: Density Gradient (DG) separation and the "BM processing" module of the Optia apheresis system.
METHODS: BM from 20 allogenic donations were processed using the two different methods. 12 out of 20 procedures (7 BMP Optia separations and 5 DG separations) were performed to achieve near-complete RBC depletion. Pre and post procedure samples were taken to analyze mononuclear cell (MNC) recovery, the extent of RBC volume depletion, sterility and procedure duration.
RESULTS: Mean MNC recovery was similar (81.4+ 10.4 % using the Optia and 82.4+8.9% with the DG method). When required, RBC depletion in 12 procedures was nearly complete using both methods (99.2+0.5 % reduction with the Optia and 99.6+0.4 % with the DG method). By contrast, processing time was markedly shorter using the Optia (1.5 hours) vs the DG procedure (4.5 hours). Volume reduction using the Optia system was efficient (90.8+2.1%), final volume of DG preparations was driven by physician request. All procedures were sterility negative.
CONCLUSIONS: The BM processing using the BMP Optia module is simple, reliable and safe. It is significantly less time consuming and less operator dependent as compared with the DG separation. The advantages of BMP Optia module make it the preferred method for use at our center.