Smart Cells (Malta)


"...scientists can develop new therapies to tackle brain and spinal cord repair, Alzheimer's and other degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's" Tony Blair - British Ex-Prime Minister
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Processing (FAQs)

	Do you store whole blood or do you process the blood and separate the mononuclear cells (MNC)? We process the whole blood and discard all but the white blood cells. To date, there have been no transplants using the whole blood. A transplant using whole blood can prove more harmful than helpful due to the toxicity in the haemoglobin that is released from the red blood cells during the freezing process. A separate article on this is on our website. What is the minimum volume you will accept for storage? This is relative to the number of Luekocytes (white blood cells) and the viability of the sample. The Laboratory assesses each sample on a case-by-case basis. It used to be argued that storing smaller samples was useless, because they did not meet the recommended dose for transplant. However, we now have technology to expand the cell count in the laboratory prior to transplant, and this has been used successfully in clinical trials on adults. Is the blood stored as a single unit or several samples? This depends on the volume of whole blood sent in, but generally, there will only be one storage bag. [back to FAQs]

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