CD34+ Enrichment and T-Cell Depletion

Abstract

For many patients with hematological or solid organ malignancies, stem cell transplant is a critical component of their treatment. The field of hematopoietic cell transplantation is rapidly evolving as is our understanding of cellular immunity. Along with this knowledge has come the ability to engineer hematopoietic progenitor cell (HPC) grafts collected from allogeneic donors in the clinical laboratory. Methods including CD34+ enrichment and T-cell depletion have proven to mitigate graft-versus-host disease while maintaining graft-versus-tumor effect and the ability to reconstitute the marrow. In addition, the ability to remove unwanted T cells has enabled the successful implementation of haploidentical transplants for patients that do not have HLA-matched donors. However, there remain challenges and limitations to cell selection from a laboratory and resource perspective. Each procedure is costly and time-consuming, and not all laboratories have the capability of handling these complex procedures.