Harvesting peripheral blood stem cells from healthy donors on 4th day of cytokine mobilization

A pilot study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of harvesting peripheral blood stem cells from normal healthy donors on day 4 after mobilization with G-CSF at 10 microg/kg for 4 days or a sequential combination of GM-CSF at 10 microg/kg for 2 days and G-CSF at 10 microg/kg for 2 more days. Harvesting over the target dose (>4 x 10(6) kg) of CD34+ cells based on the lst leukapheresis performed on day 4 was possible from 7 (53.8%) out of 13 donors. The 7 matched recipients all exhibited early engraftment, except for one who experienced transplant-related mortality, and no differences were observed with the recipients transplanted with stem cells harvested after a 5-6-day growth-factor (GF) treatment. Accordingly, harvesting from normal healthy donors on day 4 after mobilization treatment with a GF was found to be feasible for allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation and more economical in terms of the cost of the GF and the donor's commitment.