Does body mass index affect stem cell yield in healthy donors?

Objectives: Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is an important treatment for many benign and malignant diseases. Factors affecting the donor response to mobilization and thus hematopoietic progenitor cell yield have been investigated, but studies on donor body mass index are limited and contradictory. Our aim in our study was to investigate this situation. Material and methods: The data of a total of 665 healthy donors were analyzed and divided into 2 groups as body mass index (BMI) < 25 (group 1, n: 247) and ≥ 25 kg/m² (group 2, n: 418). In addition to demographic data, smoking, blood group, agent used for mobilization, number of days of apheresis, volume of blood processed, amount of product collected, complete blood count before mobilization and biochemical parameters were evaluated. Results: Group 1 consisted of 247 and group 2 consisted of 418 participants. Median age was 29 (18–66) years in group 1 and 37 (18–68) years in group 2. Median BMI was 22.49 (16.10–24.98) and 28.06 (25.00–48.27) kg/m², respectively. Male donors constituted 62.7 % in group 1 and 73.9 % in group 2. In group 2, the number of apheresis days was lower and the median CD34⁺ stem cell count on the first day and in total was statistically significantly higher (7.1 ×10⁶/kg and 7.58 ×10⁶/kg, respectively). Conclusion: In healthy donors, CD34⁺ stem cells were correlated with BMI, whereas no statistically significant difference was found between the groups in terms of smoking habit, blood group, granulocyte stimulating agent type, processed blood volume, non-lymphocyte and biochemical parameters other than LDH.