Post-thaw CD34+ cell recovery likely degraded under extreme graft platelet concentrations

Impaired post-thaw CD34 cell (postCD34) viability in autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplant (ASCT) could indicate delayed engraftment where multiple factors might complicate the relationship. Despite of a couple of unconfirmed reports of a negative correlation of platelet concentration with postCD34 viability, how platelets might be involved in the relationship is largely unknown. Therefore, this question was addressed in this retrospective study of 82 ASCT patients with a total of 150 collections of peripheral blood stem cells in New Zealand. A significant negative correction between platelet concentration and postCD34 recovery (r = -0.18, p = 0.028) was observed overall, but upon further analysis only confirmed in the subset with graft platelets 1500-2000 ×10⁹/L. Importantly, the postCD34 recovery was clearly reduced in the subgroups with either the lowest or the highest platelet concentration. The lowest subgroup was enriched with collections from patients with Hodgkin or non-Hodgkin lymphoma, whereas the highest subgroup from patients with multiple myeloma, both with clearly male preponderance. We hypothesized that graft platelet concentrations probably indicated CD34 cell state (e.g. cell cycle and cell adhesion highly related to platelet functions) that sustained when platelet concentrations were within a niche range but went out of kilter otherwise.