Comparative analysis of proliferative potential and clonogenicity of MACS-immunomagnetic isolated CD34+ and CD133+ blood stem cells derived from a single donor

.  A novel stem cell marker prominin-1 (CD133) has been shown to be expressed on a subpopulation of CD34+ haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. The aim of this study was to compare in parallel commercially available CD34+ and CD133+ isolation methods based on paramagnetic bead-coupled antibodies using clinical-grade samples of mobilized peripheral blood from 10 individual healthy donors under identical conditions. The CD133 negative fraction from the first selection was used for CD34+ enrichment to obtain an additional CD34+/CD133− population. Although no significant difference in total cell expansion between cells isolated from the three procedures was observed in a 7-day cytokine-driven suspension culture, the long-term culture-initiating cell assay demonstrated that cells derived by CD34+ isolation contain less primitive progenitors than those isolated based on CD133+ selection. Interestingly, CD34+-enriched progenitors, especially the CD34+/CD133− fraction, contained a significantly higher proportion of erythroid colony-forming cells, whereas the highest content of myeloid colony-forming cells was concentrated in the CD133+ selected cells. These subtle differences between CD34+ and CD133+ immunomagnetic selection will have to be explored for their potential clinical relevance.