Reduction of human immunodeficiency virus‐ infected cells from donor blood by leukocyte filtration

Abstract

Several filters for leukocyte removal were evaluated in terms of their ability to reduce the cell‐associated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) load in units of blood either inoculated in vitro with lymphocytes from a chronically infected cell line or collected directly from seropositive donors. Filtration of the experimentally inoculated units of blood resulted in a 5.9 log₁₀ mean reduction (95% confidence interval:7.4–4.5) of tissue culture infectious units (TCIU) as assayed by end‐point titration using the cocculture assay. Filtration of the units of blood from anti‐HIV positive donors lowered the infectivity by over 2 logs, as detected by the coculture and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques. However, residual cell‐associated virus was detected in the majority of experiments. Clinical studies are warranted to determine if leukocyte filtration of blood will reduce the risk of transfusion transmitted viral infections.