Quantitative and qualitative assessment of cadaver bone marrow stem cells

Stem cell transplantation is a major tool of modern renegerative medicine. Stem cells can be obtained from the bone marrow (BM) of dead subjects.Objective: to provide a morphofunctional characterization of the cells obtained from the bone marrow of dead donor tissues by aspiration methods.Materials and methods. BM samples were taken from 17 adult cadaver subjects, who had suddenly died from myocardial infarction or pulmonary artery embolism, not later than 6 hours after sudden death. BM was simultaneously taken (from the iliac bones on different sides) in 10 donors by aspiration and aspiration-washing methods within an hour. In 7 donors, BM sampling was made by the aspiration method (for 30 min) and then by the aspiration-washing (Valeri Borisovich khvatov khvatov@yandex.ru) method (for the following 30 min).Results. The count of CD45lowCD34+-cells obtained by the aspiration and aspiration-washing methods for taking BM differs insignificantly. The morphological pattern of the BM taken from live donors and cadavers is similar. When the aspiration and aspiration-washing methods are concurrently used, the total yield of viable hematopoietic stem cells averaged 99.8±25.0 × 106 cells.Conclusion. BM sampling from donor tissues in the first 6 hours of death yields viable, functionally active hematopoietic stem cells. Both the aspiration method and the aspiration-washing one may be used to sample BM from dead donor tissues. The successive use of aspiration and aspiration-washing is most efficacious. This combination of the methods enables one to obtain a BM suspension containing the therapeutic dose of hematopoietic stem cells.