Autologous Stem Cells

Autologous stem cells are derived from the patient

Autologous stem cells are those derived from the patient themselves and these are extracted in a similar way to those donating stem cells.  Again, the patient will be given a medication such as G-CSF a few days prior to collection to force the stem cells into circulation from the bone marrow.  Venous catheterization and apheresis will be conducted to remove the stem cells from the peripheral circulation with the blood returned to the patient.  This can take a three to five days to do, with patients spending three or four hours on each of these days hooked up to the apheresis machine.

The procedure is not guaranteed to harvest enough stem cells for therapeutic purposes, and this is a problem for for older patients.  If harvesting stem cells does not meet the required quota then a different harvesting technique, such as surgical bone marrow extraction, or the use of adipose tissue would be needed.  Clinics will often try to retrieve 5  million CD34-expressing cells per kilo of the patient’s weight; some clinics have used less (around 2million/kg of body weight) with success.  Pharmaceuticals that act as mobilization agents for stem cells can improve the likelihood of a successful harvest but these drugs can have potentially serious side effects.