Development of molecular sterility assay for rapid quality release of cord blood erythrocytes units for transfusion.

Background: Umbilical cord blood (CB) units stored in banks are an important source of hematopoietic stem cells for transplantation and other cell therapies. New applications, such as their use in transfusions, require rapid quality release as cord blood red blood cells (CB-RBC) have a shorter shelf life.

Study Design And Methods: This project aims to investigate the most prevalent microbial contaminants in CB preparations and validate a rapid sterility testing strategy for CB-RBC based on an automated system (BACT/ALERT®) in tandem with a molecular assay (real-time PCR) capable of detecting at least 100 CFU/mL of Cutibacterium acnes in CB-RBC to accelerate the detection of the most common slow-growing bacteria.

Natural killer cell receptors and ligand variants modulate response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia.

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative neoplasm treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Although survival rates have improved, response to these treatments is highly heterogeneous. Variations in response rates may be due to different causes such as, treatment adherence, mutations in the BCR-ABL1 gene, clonal evolution and amplification of the BCR-ABL1 gene, but innate immune response is also considered to play a very important role and, specifically, NK cell activity through their receptors and ligands, could be determinant.

High-throughput genotyping of HLA-G, HLA-F, MICA, and MICB and analysis of frequency distributions in healthy blood donors from Catalonia.

Similarly to HLA class I molecules, certain non-classical HLA class I genes and MHC class I polypeptide-related sequences A and B (MICA and MICB) act as ligands for KIR and NKG2D natural killer receptors. Although these genes are less polymorphic than HLA class I, few studies have analyzed their association with diseases. Information on allele frequencies in healthy donors is needed to map their distribution worldwide.