Phenotypic differences of CD34-positive stem cells harvested from peripheral blood and bone marrow obtained before and after peripheral blood stem cell collection.

Using two-color flow cytometry, we analyzed the subpopulations of CD34+ stem and progenitor cells in the blood and bone marrow from 10 patients with hematological malignancies. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNC) harvested after chemotherapy (high-dose Ara C and VP-16) and rhG-CSF, and BM mononuclear cells, which were obtained before chemotherapy (BMMNCbefore) and after the stem cell collection (BMMNCafter) were isolated by Ficoll-Hypaque centrifugation. The purified cells were stained with FITC-conjugated anti-CD34 antibody and one of the following PE-conjugated antibodies: anti-CD7, CD10, CD11b, CD11c, CD13, CD19, CD33, CD38, CD45RO, CD56, and HLA-DR. CD34+ PBMNC harvested and the CD34+ BMMNCafter expressed CD13 and CD33 more frequently than CD34+ BMMNCbefore but expressed CD10 and CD19 less frequently than CD34+ BMMNCbefore. These data suggested that harvested PBMNC contain more myeloid lineage committed progenitors than BMMNCbefore, which might contribute to the rapid recovery of neutrophils after peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. No significant phenotypic differences of CD34+ cells between harvested PBMNC and BMMNCafter were observed except for the expression of CD11c. CD34+ PBMNC harvested coexpressed CD11c more frequently than both CD34+ BMMNCbefore and CD34+ BMMNCafter, which expression might be associated with commitment to the monocyte lineage.