TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wiercinska, Eliza
A1  - Schlipfenbacher, Vera Barbara Franziska
A1  - Bug, Gesine
A1  - Bader, Peter
A1  - Verbeek, Mareike
A1  - Seifried, Erhard
A1  - Bönig, Halvard-Björn
T1  - Allogeneic transplant procurement in the times of COVID-19: Quality report from the central European cryopreservation site
T2  - Journal of translational medicine
N2  - Background: Because of limitations of transportation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, current recommendation calls for cryopreservation of allogeneic stem cell transplants before patient conditioning. A single cell therapy laboratory was selected to function as the central cryopreservation hub for all European registry donor transplants intended for the Australian-Pacific region. We examined properties of these transplants to ascertain how quality is maintained.
Methods: We analyzed 100 pandemic-related allogeneic mobilized blood-derived stem cell apheresis products generated at 30 collection sites throughout Europe, shipped to and cryopreserved at our center between April and November of 2020. Products were shipped in the cool, subsequently frozen with DMSO as cryoprotectant. Irrespective of origin, all products were frozen within the prescribed shelf-life of 72 h.
Results: Prior to cryopreservation, viable stem cell and leukocyte count according to the collection site and our reference laboratory were highly concordant (r2 = 0.96 and 0.93, respectively) and viability was > 90% in all instances. Median nominal post-thaw recovery of viable CD34+ cells was 42%. Weakly associated with poorer CD34+ cell recovery was higher leukocyte concentration, but not time lag between apheresis or addition of cryopreservant, respectively, and start of freezing. The correlation between pre- and post-thaw CD34+ cell dose was high (r2 = 0.85), hence predictable. Neutrophil and platelet engraftment were prompt with no evidence of dose dependency within the range of administered cell doses (1.31–15.56 × 106 CD34+ cells/kg).
Conclusions: General cryopreservation of allogeneic stem cell transplants is feasible. While more than half of the CD34+ cell content is lost, the remaining stem cells ensure timely engraftment.
KW  - Hematopoietic stem cell
KW  - Stem cell enumeration
KW  - CD34+ cell enumeration
KW  - Graft
KW  - Graft quality
KW  - Quality control
KW  - Engraftment
KW  - Stem cell dose
KW  - Post-thaw recovery
KW  - Transplant logistics
Y1  - 2021
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/71011
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-710118
SN  - 1479-5876
N1  - Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
VL  - 19
IS  - art. 145
SP  - 1
EP  - 10
PB  - BioMed Central
CY  - London
ER  -