Family directed umbilical cord blood banking for acute leukemia: usage rate in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Family-directed umbilical cord blood (UCB) collection and banking is indicated in women delivering healthy babies who already have a member of their own family with a disease potentially treatable with an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell (HSCs) transplantation (HSCT). The rapid availability of UCB is an important issue in HSCs procurement particularly for recipients with acute leukemia who urgently need HSCT. The aims of this study were to assess the usage rate of family UCB collections directed to patients with acute leukemia and to investigate the factors influencing the usage rate. A total of 113 families were enrolled, 118 UCB units were successfully collected and one collection failed due to emergency occurred during delivery. Among these, 7 collections were required for children who were in urgent need of a transplant: three HLA-matched units were successfully transplanted, respectively after 2, 5 and 6 months from collection; three collections resulted HLA-mismatched, while HLA-typing is pending for one unit. The remaining collections were mostly required for potential future use, among these units only one was transplanted in a HLA compatible sibling after 3 years and 4 months from collection. After a median time of storage of 8.5 years (range 0.1-20 years) a total of 4/118 (3.4 %) collection has been transplanted. During this time interval, considering only patients who have had the need of a transplant, the main factor influencing low utilization rate of UCB collections was due to HLA disparity, indeed among typed UCB unit mostly (77 %) resulted HLA mismatched with the intended recipient.

Diagnosis of acute foetal distress does not preclude banking of umbilical cord blood units.

Clinical diagnosis of acute foetal distress (AFD) is based on several parameters such as abnormal foetal heart rate (FHR) pattern and/or meconium liquid staining (MLS). Standards for cord blood (CB) banking indicate that AFD should be considered as exclusion criteria for CB collection, but precise guidelines on how to proceed with CB collection in the presence of AFD signs during labour are not available. We evaluated whether the presence of FHR abnormality and/or MLS during labour 1) reduced the CB collection activity; 2) were associated with the infant's acidaemia or asphyxia and 3) deteriorated the biological characteristics of CB units. Thirty-three units of CB were evaluated for biological parameters, gas values and newborn's Apgar score. The results were compared with a control group of 33 consecutive units previously banked. No differences were observed between the two groups and all but one newborn showed normal Apgar score and absence of metabolic acidaemia. The results showed that 1) AFD reduced the CB collection activity by 10% each year; 2) the majority of CB units collected in the presence of abnormal FHR and/or meconium have biological characteristics eligible for banking; 3) FHR alterations or meconium in the presence of normal gas analysis do not represent certain diagnosis of AFD.

Evaluation of biological features of cord blood units collected with different methods after cesarean section.

INTRODUCTION: Cord blood banks are established worldwide as a result of the increased use of umbilical cord blood (UCB) transplantation. The outcomes of this procedure relate to the cell dose of the UCB unit and the UCB collection. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the mode of collection influenced the biological features of the UCB units. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied 151 UCB units consecutively collected in the cesarean setting with two different methods: in utero after infant delivery and before delivery of the placenta, and ex utero after delivery of placenta. RESULTS: Sixty-nine UCB units were collected in utero and 82 ex utero. The two groups were comparable for maternal and obstetric factors. The proportion of banked UCB units was similar in the two groups (38% vs 40%, respectively). No statistically significant differences were observed between the methods of collection in term of volume, white blood cell count, total nucleated cell content, CD34(+) cells, and CFU-GM. CONCLUSION: This preliminary study showed that the two methods of collection in the cesarean setting were overlapping and valid if performed according to standard operating procedures.

Femoral catheters: safety and efficacy in peripheral blood stem cell collection.

Central venous access is necessary in patients candidate for peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) collection. We report our experience with a dual lumen femoral catheter (Gamcath, 11 french), initially designed for hemodialysis. We studied 147 patients and performed 488 collections after mobilization with either G-CSF alone or chemotherapy + G-CSF, when the white blood cell count exceeded 1 x 10(9)/L, or when a measurable population of CD34+ cells (20/microL) was detected in peripheral blood. All patients received systemic anticoagulation with a low weight heparin and ultrasound examination was performed after the removal of the catheter. Seven patients developed thrombosis (4.7%), ten experienced hematomas at the site of catheter placement (6.8%) despite prophylactic platelet transfusions, while only one patient (0.6%) had a catheter-related infection. In conclusion, the short-term use of large bore femoral catheters in setting up PBSC collection seems to be associated with minimal risk of infection and low thrombotic incidence.

Multiparametric analysis for the enumeration of CD34+ cells from bone marrow and stimulated peripheral blood.

Determination of CD34+ cells was performed in bone marrow and G-CSF mobilised peripheral blood samples. We adopted three different protocols of analysis: the Milan/Mulhouse protocol, the ISHAGE guidelines for CD34+ cell determination and our own protocol based upon the use of PAINT-A-GATEPRO software analysis program. An excellent correlation was demonstrated between the three methods (r2 0.98); however the analysis of variance showed a statistically significant difference between the results generated with the three methods (P=0.001). The differences between the three procedures are discussed with a special focus on the value of CD34+dim cells and the role of CD45 in the setting of a double staining. We have in fact identified a minor subset (CD34+CD38+CD45-) which would go unrecognised based upon its CD45 negativity.

Red blood cell depletion of cord blood using hydroxyethylstarch double sedimentation: analysis of 40 cases.

Cord blood has been shown to successfully reconstitute haematopoiesis following allogeneic transplantation in a variety of disorders. A major drawback of cord blood has been the risk of transfusion reaction secondary to ABO incompatibility and reduction in the stem cell pool if cord blood is manipulated to remove red cells. We report our experience on red blood cell depletion of cord blood (CB) with hydroxyethylstarch (HES) double sedimentation. The nucleated and mononucleated cell recovery passed from 78.4% at 90 min to 92.9% at 180 min and from 85% at 90 min to 96% at 180 min, respectively. The overall recovery of CCD34+ cells and of haemopoietic progenitors (CFU-GM) was 90.5% and 83.8%, respectively. The data indicate that HES double sedimentation is a simple and effective technique for cord blood manipulation, but further studies are necessary to evaluate the clonogenic progenitor recovery after thawing.