What does peripheral blood stem cell donation involve?
To collect blood stem cells from the peripheral blood, the cells have to be encouraged to move from the bone marrow where they are made, out into the circulating blood stream. During the five days before the collection the donor receives daily injections of a growth factor (G-CSF) to mobilize the blood stem cells and thereby increase their number in the peripheral blood. These cells can then be collected on a cell separator machine in one or two collections lasting four to five hours each, in a process known as ‘apheresis’. No in-patient hospitalisation is required and neither are general or spinal anaesthesia.
