Characterization of enriched CD34+ cells from healthy volunteers and those from patients treated with chemotherapy plus granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF).

CD34+ cells were enriched, using a panning method, from peripheral blood (PB) and bone marrow (BM) of healthy volunteers and of patients treated with chemotherapy plus granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). In healthy volunteers, PB CD34+ cells expressed CD33 and CD13 at a higher frequency than BM CD34+ cells, and PB CD34+ cells contained a greater number of burst-forming units-erythroid (BFU-E) than colony-forming units granulocyte-macrophage (CFU-GM). Administration of G-CSF to healthy volunteers induced a marked increase in the number of PB CD34+ cells, although the proportions of those expressing CD33, CD13, and c-kit among these cells as well as colony-forming ability were not changed before and after G-CSF administration. There were no significant differences in surface antigens on PB CD34+ cells between healthy volunteers and patients after chemotherapy plus G-CSF, except for low expression of c-kit in the PB of patients. However, PB CD34+ cells from patients contained almost the same number of CFU-GM as BFU-E. These results indicate that there were clear differences in the features of CD34+ cells from BM and from PB, and between healthy volunteers and patients after chemotherapy plus G-CSF. Enriched CD34+ cells are useful for analyzing the characteristics of hematopoietic progenitor cells, and such analysis may predict the usefulness of autologous or allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.