Comparison of two blood cell separators in collecting peripheral blood stem cell components

To ensure that a sufficient number of CD34+ cells are collected for an allogeneic blood progenitor cell transplant, the most effective blood cell separator should be used to collect peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) components. We compared the effectiveness of two blood cell separators. We gave 29 healthy people 7.5 or 10 μg kg^-1 of granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) daily for 5 days and collected one PBSC component with either a Fenwal CS3000 (n = 15) or a Cobe Spectra (n = 14) blood cell separator. The volume of blood processed was the same for each machine (8.4 ± 1.0L; range =4.9-9.4L for the CS3000 and 8.9 ± 1.0 L; range 6.7-10.9 L; P = 0.71). The components collected with the CS3000 contained more mononuclear cells (39.6 ± 21.9 x 10⁹ compared with 26.9 ± 5.6 x 10⁹, P = 0.02) and fewer neutrophils (1.38 ± 1.88 x 10⁹ compared with 5.53 ± 8.71 x 10⁹, P = 0.001). The total number of CD34+ cells collected with the two instruments was the same (470 ± 353 x 10⁶ for the CS3000 and 419 ± 351 x 10⁶ for the Spectra; P = 0.64) as was the number of CD34+ cells collected per litre of whole blood processed (55.9 ± 42.0 x 10⁶ L^-1 compared with 45.9 ± 37.9 x 10⁶ L^-1 P = 0.59). The mononuclear cell collection efficiency was greater for the CS3000 (82.4 ± 54.9% compared with 53.3 ± 14.1; P = 0.04) but the CD34+ cell collection efficiencies were the same (87.4 ± 61.1% for the CS3000 compared with 56.3 ± 23.5% for the Spectra; P = 0.07). In conclusion, both blood cell separators collected components which contained large numbers of CD34+ cells, but those collected with the CS3000 contained fewer neutrophils and the CS3000 was more efficient at collecting mono-nuclear cells.