The effect of prestorage filtration on platelet function during storage.

The effect of prestorage filtration on platelet function and membrane surface glycoproteins was studied. Platelet concentrates (PC) prepared by apheresis (A-PC) or from whole blood and pooled (P-PC) were filtered with a leukocyte-removal filter, the Sepacell PL5N, and platelet functions and membrane glycoproteins were measured during 10 days of storage.Five pairs of filtered and non-filtered A-PCs or P-PCs were compared in this study. The average numbers of residual leukocytes in A-PC were 2.27±3.14×108/bag (non-filtered) and 8.60±11.0×106/bag (filtered), and those in P-PC were 1.46±0.92×107/bag (non-filtered) and 2.69±1.64×105/bag (filtered). No significant differences between the non-filtered and filtered PCs were observed during the storage in tests for the following: platelet functions such as aggregability and hypotonic shock response, levels of surface glycoproteins such as glycoprotein Ib and GMP-140 detected by flow cytometry, and the concentration of glycocalicin in plasma detected by enzyme immunoassay.These results indicate that prestorage filtration of PC does not effect platelet functions and it should be useful to further reduce the risks of side effects caused by the leukocytes contaminating PC.