Minerva Pediatrica 2020 Dec 11

DOI: 10.23736/S0026-4946.20.06096-X

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Evaluation of factors affecting total nucleated cells in umbilical cord blood collected for the Calabria cord blood bank

Giulia PUCCI ¹, Giovanni FOTI ¹, Rosangela SURACE ¹, Renza MONTELEONE ¹, Domenica PRINCI ¹, Enrico FABRIZI ², Giuseppe QUATTRONE ², Roberto MINIERO ³, Antonio LIVERANI ⁴, Valentina TALARICO ³ ✉

¹ Calabria Cord Blood Bank, Bianchi Melacrino Morelli Hospital, Reggio Calabria, Italy; ² DISES (Department of Economic and Social Sciences), Sacro Cuore University of Piacenza, Piacenza, Italy; ³ Department of Pediatrics, Pugliese-Ciaccio Hospital of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy; ⁴ Italian Volunteer Doctors ONLUS, Milano, Italy

BACKGROUND: Total nucleated cell (TNC) count is the most important biological feature to consider in assessing the quality of umbilical cord blood (UCB) for haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation. Certain obstetric factors have been reported to increase TNC count in UCB units collected for transplantation. The aim of our study was to analyze how various maternal, neonatal and obstetric factors affected TNC count in the UCBs we collected for our cord blood bank in southern Italy.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of 634 medical records of UCBs collected by Calabria Cord Blood Bank (CCBB), between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2016. We analyzed various maternal, neonatal and obstetric variables factors and related this factor with the characteristic of TNC.
RESULTS: We found that the average number of TNCs was significantly greater in vaginal delivery than in caesarean delivery. We also found that TNCs were higher in the 40th week of pregnancy and when Apgar 1' scores were ≤ 9. The effect of a newborn’s gender was less evident on TNC count.
CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge of factors predictive of a higher TNC count would help cord blood banks more efficiently identify donors likely to yield high-quality UCBs for transplantation.

KEY WORDS: Blood collection; Total nucleated cell; Umbilical cord blood bank; Delivery mode; Apgar