Purification of human hemopoietic stem cells for transplantation in Thailand

Stem cell transplantation (SCT) has become the therapy of choice for many h ematologic and immunologic disorders. At present, only 25% of patients have suitable HLA-identical donors. In an attempt to increase the donor pool fo r SCT in Thailand and Southeast Asia, we developed a program whereby parent s and mismatched siblings can be used as donors. In this preliminary study, after granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) was given to adult don ors, peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) were collected and CD34(+) cells pu rified using a CliniMACS immunomagnetic device (Miltenyi Biotec, Germany). in seven experiments, purified CD34(+) cells could be obtained from G-CSF-s timulated PBSC in large numbers (1.71 +/- 0.19 x 10(8)), with high purity ( 93 +/- 2.4%) and excellent recovery (64.28% - 85.62%). Immune reactive T an d NK cells were adequately depleted to less than 0.2%. The purification pro cedure can be completed within 3 hours. In conclusion, a clinical stem cell purification program using this novel device is now established in Thailan d and for the first time in Southeast Asia. This should allow further devel opment of advanced SCT therapy including haploidentical and mismatched CD34 + SCT for patients' lacking HLA-identical donors in this region.