Automated washing of autologous hematopoietic stem cell grafts after thawing does not impair engraftment

摘要

Autologous hematopoietic SCT (AHSCT) remains widely used to support the administration of high-dose chemotherapy to a subset of patients affected by malignant blood diseases, mostly lymphoid malignancies. Nowadays, patients are almost exclusively transplanted with peripheral blood grafts, collected by apheresis, after mobilization of hematopoietic progenitor with various regimens. Cryopreservation and storage of collected cell products in liquid- or gas-phase nitrogen are mandatory before reinfusion. The historical but still topical technique of cryopreservation uses DMSO as cryoprotectant in order to prevent intracellular ice crystal formation, thus preserving cell viability and function. Reinfusion of the graft thawed at the bedside might be associated with various side effects,1 ranging from mild to severe. The etiology of these adverse effects is generally attributed to DMSO, damaged cells or cell lysis products. In order to remove such byproducts, biomedical devices like Cytomate (Baxter, Deerfield, IL, USA) or Sepax (Biosafe, Eysins, Switzerland) have been developed for washing thawed grafts before reinfusion. Additionally, cell therapy facilities are under increasing regulatory pressure to better characterize and control the cell product to be reinfused, which can only be done to a limited extent when thawing at the bedside.