EVALUATION OF QUALITIES ON A CLOSED-BAG SYSTEM WITH WHOLE BLOOD LEUKOCYTE FILTER (WBF2) FOR PRE-STORAGE LEUKOREDUCTION

In order to avoid a wide variety of side effects associated with blood transfusion such as nonhemolytic febrile transfusion reactions (NHFTR), HLA-sensitization and Cytomegalovirus infection. Leukocyte filters have come into wide use in bedside blood transfusion in Japan. During the storage of blood components, however, residual leukocytes disintegrate and release various biologically active substances, which constitute one of the causes of transfusion-related adverse events. Therefore, removal of leukocytes immediately or at an early stage after blood collection is expected to decrease the incidence of transfusion-related side effects by controlling the deterioration of blood cells or preventing the accumulation of cytokines.The WBF2 closed-bag system is a blood collection-component separation system designed for the removal of leukocytes from whole blood and the preparation of blood components by centrifugation. In the present study, we evaluated the usefulness of the system in the preparation of leukocyte-reduced RC-MAP and FFP using WBF2, and compared the quality of these preparations with those by conventional post-storage leukoreduction or non-leukoreduction. The WBF2 system yielded red cell components with superior red cell recovery and lower accumulation of some cytokines, demonstrating its suitability for use in a blood center program. It was also noted that there was almost no macroaggregation in red cell components prepared by prestorage leukoreduction.