FLOW CYTOMETRY IN IMMUNOLOGY AND HEMATOLOGY 

Minerva Biotecnologica 1999 June;11(2):107-12

Copyright © 1999 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Circulating hematopoietic progenitor cells. Biological aspects and clinical applications

Danova M., Porta C., Ferrari S.

Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology, IRCCS San Matteo University Hospital, Pavia, Italy

Hematopoietic pro­gen­i­tor ­cells set up a ­very het­er­o­ge­ne­ous cel­lu­lar com­part­ment, com­pris­ing ­many dif­fer­ent stag­es of dif­fe­ren­ti­a­tion ­from extreme­ly prim­i­tive ele­ments to ­more ­mature ­cells com­mit­ted to dif­fe­ren­ti­a­tion. Early hemat­o­poiet­ic ­cells are iden­ti­fied by a mono­clo­nal anti­body bind­ing a ­cell-sur­face mole­cule, des­ig­nat­ed as CD34+. These ­cells can be mobi­lized ­into the periph­er­al ­blood by cyto­tox­ic ­drugs, cyto­kines or the com­bi­na­tion of ­both, allow­ing ­their col­lec­tion by apher­e­sis and ­used to facil­i­tate hemat­o­poiet­ic recov­ery ­after myel­oa­bla­tive chem­o­ther­a­py for ­patients ­with can­cer. These ­cells can be sub­set and quan­ti­fied by ­flow cytom­e­try; ­this tech­nique is ­also use­ful to deter­mine in a clin­i­cal set­ting the appro­pri­ate tim­ing for the apher­e­sis, as ­well as to mon­i­tor the CD34+ ­cell ­yield with­in the aph­e­ret­ic prod­uct. To ­date, the auto­tran­splan­ta­tion of periph­er­al ­blood-­derived pro­gen­i­tor ­cells is play­ing an impor­tant ­role in the med­i­cal treat­ment of leu­ke­mi­as, lym­pho­mas and ­some sol­id ­tumors. In ­this set­ting, an advan­tage of pro­gen­i­tor ­cells mobi­lized ­into the ­blood ­over ­their ­bone mar­row coun­ter­part is the ­increased ­speed of hemat­o­poiet­ic recon­sti­tu­tion ­after myel­oa­bla­tive ther­a­py. The ­future use of CPCs is relat­ed to the devel­op­ment of ex ­vivo expan­sion strat­e­gies ­aimed at increas­ing ­their num­ber as ­well as to pro­duce ­large num­bers of a par­tic­u­lar ­cell ­type for a pre­cise appli­ca­tion ­such as use as a vehi­cle for ­gene ther­a­py.