A New Type of Blood Component Collector: Plasma Separation Using Gravity without any Electrical Devices

Abstract

A new type of blood component collector (BCC) was developed to divide 450 ml of whole blood into plasma and a red cell concentrate using gravity without electrical devices. This BCC system is composed of one whole blood collection bag, two product collection bags and a plasma separator, which consists of a bundle of hydrophilized polyethylene hollow fibers (0.2 pm pore size). Without rinsing the plasma separator, the whole blood (458.1±13.5 ml, n = 22) was run through the separator using gravity without a pump. An average of 175.9 ml of plasma was collected within 11 min without hemolysis. In this completely cell-free plasma, the recovery of total protein, albumin, globulin, IgG and IgA was nearly 100%. Prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastin time were in a normal range and the activity of coagulation factors did not change after the separation. In the red cell concentrate, the recovery of red cells, white cells and platelets was 94.7, 98.4 and 82.7%, respectively. Osmotic fragility of red cells, platelet morphology and functions did not change. These observations suggest that this new type of BCC is useful as a simple, fast and safe component collector.

Prospective Comparative Quality Control Study of a Novel Gravity-Driven Hollow-Fiber Whole Blood Separation System for the Production of Canine Blood Products

“…On the other hand, acceptable FVIII (69–79% of initial activity present after 1 year of storage) activity has been demonstrated for human FFP as required by the Council of Europe (16) despite a decline in plasma protein content and coagulation factor activity due to postulated absorption by the HF system (12). The utilization of polyethylene instead of polyethersulfone fibers in the filter system showed no obvious impairment of coagulation factor activity in a previous study (34). However, none of the previous studies performed a direct comparison between the two separation methods as we did.…”

“…In previous studies, separation times of 40 and 44 min were described using a not further specified Fresenius and a Pall leukodepletion filter (12, 14) similar to the filter used in this study. Studies not using any leukodepletion filter reported a separation time of 11 and 15 min although they used a HF system with similar fiber diameter (328 μm) as in our study but smaller pore size (0.2 μm) andlower wall thickness (30 μm) (11, 34).…”

Quality and stability of red cells derived from gravity‐separated placental blood with a hollow‐fiber system

“…First attempts with integrated special plasma filters to separate the whole blood into its components were carried out at the beginning of the 1990s. The major problems with these filter systems (BBC, Asahi, Tokyo, Japan) were the long separation time and the insufficient concentration ability of the filter systems 26‐28 …”

“…The major problems with these filter systems (BBC, Asahi, Tokyo, Japan) were the long separation time and the insufficient concentration ability of the filter systems. [26][27][28] With a newly developed special hollow-fiber filtration system (Sangofer, Heim Group), Hornsey and colleagues 1 showed that it is possible to process RBCs of adequate quality without any other equipment. In this study, we were able to show that by use of a modification of the above-mentioned system (Sangofer neonatal, Heim Group), it is also possible to separate placental blood into its compounds.…”

Preparation of red cell concentrates in low-income countries: Efficacy of whole blood settling method by simple gravity in Burkina Faso

“…These techniques require important facilities and heavy investments (specific infrastructures, expensive equipment, welltrained staff, and well-controlled procedures) [8,9]. New separations' technologies using closed-system gravity filtration with hollow-fibers system has also been developed [9][10][11]. In Sub-Saharan African lowincome countries, either centrifugation/aphaeresis methods or gravity filtration system are all often out of reach.…”