Evaluating a New Photopheresis System: A Comparison with Two Established Systems on Cell Yield and Collection Efficiency

Background/Objectives: Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) is a well-established and efficacious cell therapy for a range of diseases. The objective of this retrospective study was to compare the new Amicus Blue inline system with the Therakos Cellex inline system and the Spectra Optia offline system in terms of collection efficiency, mononuclear cell (MNC) yield of mononuclear cell products (MCPs), processing time and correlation between MCP cell count and peripheral blood count of patients. Methods: This retrospective study compared 127 procedures utilizing the Spectra Optia offline system, 93 procedures employing the Amicus Blue inline system, and 81 procedures applying the Therakos Cellex inline system. The MNCs were subjected to flow cytometry analysis for CD45 and CD14 expression in order to ascertain the precise composition of the collected lymphocyte and monocyte fractions. Results: The Therakos inline system demonstrated the highest MNC collection efficiency (Therakos: 74.42 +/- 1.82; Optia: 65.79 +/- 1.48; Amicus: 56.32 +/- 2.80; p < 0.01). Regarding the content of collected MNCs (x10(6)/kg body weight), the Spectra Optia offline system was superior to the other systems (Optia: 42.69 +/- 1.42; Therakos: 31.21 +/- 1.66; Amicus: 27.56 +/- 1.54; p < 0.01). Conclusions: This study represents the first direct comparison of the new Amicus Blue inline system with the two most commonly used ECP systems in the same patient cohort of a single center. The data show that the Amicus Blue inline system collects sufficient MNCs to perform an ECP, but it has a significantly lower CE than the other systems and a significantly lower amount of collected MNCs than the Spectra Optia offline system.