[Harvesting of granulocytes for granulocyte transfusion by means of continuous flow centrifugation or filtration leukapheresis].

More than 10(10) viable granulocytes are necessary for a therapeutical effective granulocyte transfusion. This number of cells can be harvested from normal donors by two techniques basing on different principles: continuous flow centrifugation (CFC) and filtration leucapheresis (FL). Our studies demonstrated that, under certain special conditions, the separation potentials of both methods are comparable yielding 2.5 to 3.0 X 10(10) granulocytes within 4 hrs. Granulocyte collection rate was optimal if donors were treated with dexamethasone during 16 hrs prior to the state of the procedure. However, the costs of CFC exceed those of FL by a factor of about two. The increased occurrence of side effects attributed to the transfusion of FL-granulocytes can be reduced to the level of CFC-granulocytes by repetitive filtration-elution leucapheresis minimizing cell damage. The studies define the efficiency spectrum of CFC which in addition to granulocyte separation includes collection of thrombocytes, cells for immunotherapy, and plasmapheresis.