1. ¹Primary Children's Medical Center, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
2. ²University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
3. ³Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
4. ⁴MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
5. ⁵Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
6. ⁶Children's Memorial Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA
7. ⁷Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University and Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, New York, NY, USA
8. ⁸Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Cleveland, OH, USA
9. ⁹University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
10. ¹⁰Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, PA, USA

Correspondence: Dr MA Pulsipher, Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Program, Primary Children's Medical Center/University of Utah, 100 North Medical Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84113, USA. E-mail: michael.pulsipher@hsc.utah.edu

Received 28 July 2004; Accepted 17 September 2004; Published online 20 December 2004.

Abstract

The use of peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) for allogeneic transplants in adults has greatly increased. This trend is reflected in pediatrics, where healthy children increasingly are donating PBSC or donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) via apheresis for use by ill siblings. There is a potential concern that the risks of PBSC collection may differ for pediatric donors. However, no large studies have assessed safety issues in this population. To address this need, we reviewed 218 (213 PBSC, five DLI) collections in 201 normal pediatric donors (8 months to 17 years, median 11.8 years) at 22 institutions in the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium. Donors received a median of 4 days of growth factor, and mean collection yield was 9.1 10⁶ CD34+ cells/kg recipient weight. Younger age, days of apheresis, and male gender predicted increased yield of CD34+ cells/kg donor weight. Growth factor-induced pain was mild and reported in less than 15% of patients. Most donors <20 kg (23/25, 92%) required PRBC priming of the apheresis machine. This experience with over 200 collections demonstrates that PBSC collection is safe in normal pediatric donors and desired CD34 cell yields are easily achieved. Younger children utilize more medical resources and children <20 kg usually require a single blood product exposure.