Background After large volume bone marrow (BM) harvest, donors and patients can develop severe anaemia, because collected BM can contain up to 20% of their red cell mass. In a prospective analysis, we investigated the feasibility to recover red blood cells (RBCs) from the harvested BM and investigated whether these RBC units meet the quality requirements of the European Council.Patients and Methods From 19 patients (median age 51 yrs, range 31-77) with acute myocardial infarction, who participated in the MYSTAR study, a median volume of 1299 ml (range, 700-1870 ml) BM was collected. During BM processing, mononuclear cells (MNC) were separated using the Cobe SpectraÔ apheresis system and the residual RBCs were collected in a separate bag. The quality of the collected RBCs was assessed by measuring LDH, free haemoglobin, potassium and lactate. Haemolysis was calculated and the intracellular concentration of ATP, ADP, AMP was determined by HPLC.Results RBC units recovered from BM after MNC separation had a mean volume of 312 ± 95 ml with a haematocrit of 47 ± 8AE9%, a haemoglobin content of 51 ± 15 g per unit, a haemolysis of 0AE15 ± 0AE005%, a pH of 6AE8 ± 0AE007 and an intracellular ATP concentration of 135 pmol ⁄ 10 6 RBC ± 41, which is comparable with freshly collected packed red blood cells (PRBCs).Conclusion RBCs, collected from bone marrow harvests, can be used for autologous blood support to minimize allogeneic blood transfusions in donors and patients after large volume BM donation.Key words: blood sparing measurements, bone marrow harvest, bone marrow processing, salvage of red blood cells.
IntroductionLarge volume bone marrow (BM) harvest is an alternative to G-CSF-induced peripheral blood stem cell collection in patients or donors who are poor mobilizers, in the paediatric setting or in the regenerative medicine, when patients with myocardial infarction are intended to receive stem cells intracardially [1][2][3][4]. Donors and patients are at risk to develop a severe anaemia because collected BM can contain up to 20% of their red cell mass. To reduce the risk of anaemia after BM donation, at least one unit of autologous blood should be collected prior to the harvest procedure [5]. Alternatively, certain clinicians place the donors on supplemental iron plus rhEPO, transfuse their donors with allogeneic RBC units or tolerate anaemia when not severe [6]. Previous studies have shown that a recovery of approximately 90% of the harvested BM-RBCs decreased the homologous transfusion requirement of healthy BM donors significantly [7]. When paediatric BM donors were investigated and BM-RBCs were separated by density gradient centrifugation using Ficoll-Hypaque, similar results were In a prospective analysis, we assessed the extent of cell lesions occurring during manipulation by measuring the release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), free haemoglobin (fHb), potassium (K+) and lactate at each manipulation step. Special attention was paid to intracellular purine content by measuring ATP, ADP, AMP, as a surrogate mar...