Salvaged blood and natural killer cell precursors

Effects of autologous salvaged blood on post-operative natural killer cell precursor frequency

Ahmad Gharehbaghian, Kharaja m G Hque, Carol Truman, Rachael Evans, Ruth Morse, John Newman, Gordon Bannister, Chris Rogers, Benjamin A Bradley
The Lancet, vol 363, March 27, 2004

Aim

To investigate the immunomodulatory effect of different types of postoperative blood transfusion by studying the frequency of natural killer cell precursors (NKp)

Method

120 patients in 5 groups - NKp frequency measured
No transfusion (32)

Allogeneic non-leukodepleted blood (8)
Allogeneic leukodepleted blood (30)
Autologous predonated blood (10)
Autologous salvaged blood (40)

Results

NKp frequency decreased in all groups except the autologus filtered blood group, where the frequency increased with the blood tranfusion

Conclusion

Immunosuppression is reversed by transfusion of autologous salvaged blood, suggesting that the blood contains immunostimulants.