Transfusion of Neocytes: Cell harvesting with the Fenwal CS-3000 cell separator. Clinical effectiveness

Abstract

We used the Fenwal CS-3000 cell separator to harvest units of neocytes for transfusion in patients with chronic hemolytic anemia. Neocyte enrichment was evaluated by reticulocyte count. These units were contaminated by a large number of leukocytes. In order to minimize immunization to HLA-antigens, these cells could be eliminated by an additional freeze-thaw-wash procedure. To determine the clinical effectiveness, four patients were transfused with neocyte concentrates over a period of six months. This study fails to show a significant benefit of neocyte transfusion, although there was a trend in terms of transfusion requirement.