Feasibility studies on eliminating tumor cells from blood with a leucocyte depletion filter / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore and evaluate the efficiency of the leucocyte depletion filter on eliminating tumor cells from blood, and its influence on the morphology and function of red blood cells. Methods Blood from operation field was collected, filtered, centrifuged and washed. Intestinal cancer cells (LOVO) and gastric cancer cells (SGC) were cultured in vitro and mixed with the collected blood. Blood contaminated with known number of tumor cells was then centrifuged and washed with cell retriever, and then the mixture was filtered with leucocyte depletion filter. The amount of residual tumor cells in filtered blood was counted after trypan blue staining before and after culturing. Unwashed and unfiltered blood containing tumor cells were used as control and were also cultured. The morphology and Na+-K+-ATPase activity of treated red blood cells was assessed. Results Tumor cells were detectable after only being washed with cell retriever and grew well after culturing for two weeks. No tumor cells were found after both washed with cell retriever and filtered with leucocyte depletion filter, and no tumor cell grew two weeks after culturing. No change was found in morphology and Na+-K+-ATPase activity of red blood cells after being washed and filtered. Conclusion Cell retriever is not able to eliminate tumor cells from blood completely. Further filtration with leucocyte depletion filter is capable of completely eliminating the residual tumor cells in blood. The morphology and Na+-K+-ATPase of red blood cells do not change after being washed with cell retriever and being filtered with leucocyte depletion filter.