Abstract: | Human umbilical cord blood contains haematopoietic stem cells, which are a potential source of cells for hematopoietic transplants. Early cord blood hematopoietic cells are influenced by so called proinflammatory cytokines, which are present in cord blood serum. In this study we tried to correlate the concentration of these cytokines with the number, viability and clonogenicity of cord blood mononuclear cells. Accordingly, cord blood samples were harvested by employing an "open" collection method. Subsequently, we measured in those samples the concentration of selected pro inflammatory cytokines (Il-1 alpha, Il-1 beta, Il-6, Il-8 and TNF alpha), number of mononuclear cells and evaluated in vitro clonogenicity of myeloid progenitors (CFU-GM). We found the negative correlation between number of mononuclear cells and concentration of TNF alpha, and between number of detectable CFU-GM and concentration of IL-1 beta. Other cytokines, which were studied in this report did not correlate with evaluated parameters. |