White blood cell fragments in platelet concentrates prepared by the platelet-rich plasma or buffy-coat methods

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: White blood cell (WBC) fragments in platelet concentrates (PCs) may induce allo-immunization in the recipient. MATERIALS AND METHODS: As the level of WBC fragments can differ between PCs produced using different methods, we compared PCs prepared by using the buffy-coat method (BC-PCs) in plasma or platelet additive solution (Composol) and PCs prepared using the platelet-rich plasma method (PRP-PCs). RESULTS: Post-filtration results revealed identical levels of WBC, but significantly higher CD62p expression and a significantly lower amount of total DNA, cell-free DNA and number of WBC fragments (0.6 vs. 4.2 WBC equivalents/microl) in PRP-PCs than in BC-PCs in either plasma or Composol. CONCLUSIONS: The number of WBC fragments is significantly higher in BC-PCs than in PRP-PCs