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

Cord blood has been shown to successfully reconstitute haematopoiesis follo wing allogeneic transplantation in a variety of disorders. A major drawback of cord blood has been the risk of transfusion reactions secondary to ABO incompatibility and reduction in the stem cell pool if cord blood is manipu lated to remove red cells. We report our experience on red blood cell deple tion 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 CD34+ cells and of haemopoietic progenitors (CFU-G M) was 90.5% and 83.8%, respectively. The data indicate that HES double sed imentation is a simple and effective technique for cord blood manipulation, but further studies are necessary to evaluate the clonogenic progenitor re covery after thawing.