Haematopoietic Progenitor Cells (HPCs)

Haematopoietic Progenitor Cells (HPCs) are best known as stem cells, that give rise to all the blood cell types - white cells, red cells and platelets.

Tissues and Cells provides processing, storage and infusion of HPCs and related products to support the South East Scotland Clinical HPC Transplant Programme and similar clinical programmes in Aberdeen and Dundee.

HPC transplantation is vital to correct defects in bone marrow, either inherited or because of disease. It is also essential in the treatment of leukaemia or non blood related cancers to make bone marrow effective again after chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. 

HPCs are extracted from the bone marrow and grown using growth factors (G-CSF),   then collected and sorted by apheresis. They are then frozen in liquid nitrogen where they can remain available for treatment for up to 10 years. 

It is often possible for a patient's own stem cells to be used, sometimes a close relative can donate, or a donor can be found through the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) matching system.