Preparation and Therapeutic Use of Granulocytes

Overview

Granulocyte transfusions are one of the possibilities how to influence serious infectious complicationsof granulocytopenia. In the eighties this treatment was practically abandoned because of the equivocaltherapeutic results when concentrates with a relatively small amount of granulocytes were used. Inthe nineties the interest in granulocyte transfusions increased as during that peri od it proved possibleto obtain concentrates with a substantially higher granulocyte content due to the recombinant granu-locyte growth factor for the mobilization of neutrophilia in donors. In the review of the literature theauthor mentions contemporary possibilities of production of granulocyte concentrates, mobilizationof granulocytes in donors, complications of haemapheresis, quality of the obtained concentrates,contemporary views on the therapeutic use of granulocytes as well as complications of treatment.

Key words:
granulocytopenia, leukapheresis, granulocyte transfusion, G-CSF