(P-BT-28) Values of CD34+ and Total Nucleated Cells in Human Cord Blood Products in a Specific Ethnic Group of Hispanics

Background/Case Studies: Umbilical cord blood cells have been shown to restore blood cell lines in patients with hematological malignancies (e.g., leukemia) as an alternative to other hematopoietic cell products. As a result, many cord blood banks were established to meet this need. Widely accepted indicators to denote the quality and potency of these products by cord blood banks are the values of CD34+ and total nucleated cell (TNC). Interestingly, reported values of these tests had observed race/ethnic differences in different populations. The objective was to determine the CD34+ and TNC values of umbilical cord blood in a specific ethnic group of Hispanics and correlate them to the mononuclear cell count (MNC), volume collection, baby's sex, and mother's age at baby's birth.

Study

Design/Methods: A retrospective review of all data collected from the only private cord blood bank existing in the island from its establishment in the year 2015 until 2021.

Results/Findings: Descriptive statistical analysis was done with a total of 633 case files. By Mann Whitney analysis, the baby’s sex revealed significative differences, where males had higher CD34+ (p = 0.0234) and CD34+/CD45+ (p = 0.0292) than females. However, the volume was of marginal significance (p = 0.0575) and the TNC and MNC were not significant regarding the baby’s sex. Correlation between the mother’s age was only found to be statistically significant for the TNC value (p = 0.03). Correlation between the volume collected and the TNC and MNC values was high and statistically significant (p < 0.01 in both), was medium for the CD 34+ levels but statistically significant (p < 0.01) but not for the CD34+/CD45+.
A comparison with selected studies from public cord banks in other populations gave limited correlations due to differences in the exclusion criteria, volume requirements, and sample size.

Conclusions: This study presents the quality data analysis of a private cord blood bank for a specific ethnic group of Hispanics. The data included volume, CD34+, CD34+/CD45+, TNC, MNC, mother’s age, and baby’s sex, and statistically significant differences were found within some subset analyses.

Importance of research: These findings in Hispanic islanders with a limited genetic pool in need of a match for a transplant may pave the way towards establishing a public cord blood bank and, thus, give hope to patients who had not been able to find a match within other sources of hematopoietic cell products.