ABSTRACT
Cellsorba is a leukocyte removal filter developed by Asahi Medical Co., which adsorbs white blood cells through the perfusion of peripheral blood by means of simple extracorporeal circulation. Leukocytapheresis (LCAP) therapy using the Cellsorba column has been reported to show therapeutic effects for many autoimmune related and inflammatory diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, neurologic disease, and so on. At present, Cellsorba is listed as a medical device covered by the Japanese national health insurance system for the treatment of active ulcerative colitis (UC) in Japan, and contributes to the improvement of quality of life in many UC patients. This paper reviews the use of Cellsorba and introduces several reports on therapeutic results.
Subject(s)
Leukapheresis/instrumentation , Arthritis, Rheumatoid/therapy , Equipment Design , Equipment Safety , Humans , Leukapheresis/methods , Micropore Filters , Microscopy, Electron , Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic , Sensitivity and Specificity , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
In recent years, polyethylene and polysulfone membranes have been used for plasma separation in Japan. The polyethylene membrane, manufactured by melt spinning method, has a sponge-like symmetric structure. The plasma separator Plasmaflo OP (Asahi Medical, Tokyo, Japan) with a polyethylene membrane shows excellent performance and safety for plasma separation. More than 20 indications for therapeutic plasmapheresis are reimbursed in Japan. Future development is expected in new membrane designs for new indications or advanced plasmapheresis methodologies.
Subject(s)
Cell Separation/instrumentation , Membranes, Artificial , Plasmapheresis/instrumentation , Polyethylenes , Biocompatible Materials , Cell Separation/methods , Equipment Design , Equipment Safety , Humans , Japan , Micropore Filters , Plasmapheresis/methods , Sensitivity and SpecificityABSTRACT
Immusorba TR (IM-TR) and PH (IM-PH) were developed as adsorbents with non-biological materials as affinity ligands to remove pathogenic autoantibodies. The adsorbents of IM-TR and IM-PH are polyvinyl alcohol gel immobilized with tryptophan and phenylalanine as ligand, respectively. IM-TR is clinically applied for treatment of autoimmune neurological diseases such as myasthenia gravis and Guillain-Barre syndrome. IM-PH is used for not only neurological diseases such as GBS and multiple sclerosis but also collagen diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). As many autoantibodies with different specificities have been found to have similar affinities to the ligand of Immusorba, it is expected that Immusorba will be applied to more diseases and contribute to the clarification of the mechanisms of the development of diseases by the identification of adsorbed unknown pathogenic substances with Immusorba.
