TURKISH JOURNAL OF BIOCHEMISTRY-TURK BIYOKIMYA DERGISI, cilt.38, sa.3, ss.243-249, 2013 (SCI-Expanded)
Objective: Thrombocytopenia remains a serious problem in patients treated with high-dose chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation. In recent years, infusion of ex vivo expanded megakaryocytes (Mk) progenitors into patients has been proposed as a strategy for shortening the time of platelet engraftment. The development of in vitro culture methods to obtain sufficient numbers of Mks from haematopoietic stem cells (HSC) is an important target in basic and clinical research projects. The aim of this study was to develop a two-step ex vivo expansion culture system of Mk progenitors from peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC).