RESUMO
PURPOSE: Many studies for hematopoietic stem cell have investigated CD133, instead of CD34, as a new surrogate stem cell marker. Counterflow centrifugal elutriation (CCE) is a physical separation of a homogeneous cell population through cell sedimentation characteristics. We evaluated the stem cell distribution and hematopoietic function from cord blood (CB) and bone marrow (BM) through CCE. METHODS: We obtained total nucleated cells from CB and BM, and separated the cell fractions according to media infusion flow rates (17 mL/min (FR 17), 24 mL/min (FR 24), 29 mL/min (FR 29), and rotor off (R/O) ) by CCE. We analyzed the proportion of CD34+ and CD133+ cells in each fraction, and performed methylcellulose-based colony assay. RESULTS: In CB, the cell recovery rates after CCE were 5.9+/-4.3% in FR 17, 4.2+/-2.1% in FR 24, 19.4+/-11.9% in FR 29, and 61.9+/-11.7% in R/O. In BM, they were 14.9+/-8.2% in FR 17, 17.4+/-13.4% in FR 24, 23.6+/-6.11% in FR 29, and 27.1+/-8.9% in R/O. The distributions of CD133+ and CD34+ cells in CB were more abundant in R/O (2.91%, 1.85%) than in other fractions. In BM, CD133+ and CD34+ cell rates in R/O (5.40%, 2.75%) were similar with those in unmanipulated BM (5.48%, 2.78%). In both CB and BM, there was more CFU-GM and BFU-E in R/O than in other fractions. CONCLUSION: We suggested that the distribution of CD34+ and CD133+ cells might be different between CB and BM. However, the R/O containing relatively large cells could have an effective clonogenicity compared with the unmanipulated sample in both CB and BM.