Asahi Medical Co., Ltd.

Takao Nishimura

Tatsuya Fukuda

Naokuni Yamawaki

Shin-ichiroh Oka

Yoshiyuki Mizoguchi

Toru Kuroda

Kenji Kobayashi

Junko Sato

Disclosed is a filter material for selectively removing leukocytes from a leukocyte-containing suspension, which comprises a porous element having an average pore diameter of 1 to 25 .mu.m and a total pore volume of 0.40 to 0.95 ml/ml of the porous element, and wherein the sum of respective pore volumes of pores of the porous element which have a pore diameter of 1 to 30 .mu.m is 90% or more, based on said total pore volume. Also disclosed is a filter apparatus for selectively removing leukocyte from a leukocyte-containing suspension which is packed with the above-mentioned filter material. By virtue of the filter material, the filter apparatus not only can remove leukocytes from a leukocyte-containing suspension at a leukocyte removal efficiency as excellent as 10.sup.-4 or less in terms of a leukocyte residual ratio without suffering from a pressure loss increase, but also can be rendered compact.

Filter apparatus for selectively removing leukocytes

Disclosed is a leukocyte-removing filter device comprising (a) a casing having an inlet for blood and an outlet for leukocyte-removed blood, which are both located in a top portion of the casing, and (b) a filter medium disposed in the casing so as to divide the internal space of the casing into an inlet-side chamber communicated with the inlet and an outlet-side chamber communicated the outlet. By virtue of the locations of the inlet and outlet on the top portion of the filter device, the leukocyte-removing filter device of the present invention is advantageous not only in that the filter device can be fittedly and stably accommodated into a centrifuge cup together with a plurality of blood bags and circuit tubes connecting the filter device and blood bags, so that a centrifugation can be efficiently conducted without the danger of damaging the filter device and the blood bags, but also in that the operation of expelling the air from the filter by filling the filter with blood can be very readily conducted simply by allowing blood to flow into the filter without any additional burdensome operations. The leukocyte-removing system comprising the above-mentioned leukocyte-removing filter device is also disclosed.

Leukocyte-removing filter device and system and method of using thereof

Filter material for selectively removing leukocytes

Disclosed is a method for separating a blood material into leukocyte-removed blood component products, which comprises providing a multiple blood bag system comprising a primary bag containing a blood material, a leukocyte-removing filter device comprising a flat casing, and at least one satellite bag, and centrifuging the blood material using a centrifuge cup having the multiple blood bag system accommodated therein, to thereby separate the blood material into blood components, wherein the centrifugation is performed with the filter device being held by a filter device holder having a substantially flat dimension which is disposed in a centrifuge cup so as to extend in a direction perpendicular to an inner bottom floor of the centrifuge cup, and wherein the filter device holder has a recess and the filter device is received by the recess in a manner such that a flat surface of the flat casing of the filter device is perpendicular to the inner bottom floor of the centrifuge cup. By the method of the present invention, not only can the accommodation of a multiple blood bag system into a centrifuge cup be readily performed without any additional cumbersome operations, but also the danger of damaging the filter device and the blood bags is extremely reduced or eliminated.

Method for separating a blood material into blood component products

Method for removing leukocytes and a filter system for removing the same

A method for separating blood into blood components aseptically in a closed system first filters whole blood through a filter for removing leukocytes or removing leukocytes and platelets, to produce filtered blood, which is passed to and collected in a primary bag fluid-tightly connected to the filter through a sealable, cuttable conduit, and the conduit is sealed and cut to disconnect the primary bag from the filter. The disconnected primary bag is subjected to centrifugation to separate the filtered blood into blood components. The method is useful for separately collecting leukocyte-removed blood components, particularly leukocyte-removed erythrocytes, leukocyte-removed plasma, leukocyte-removed platelets, etc., from the whole blood of a healthy human. A blood components separation unit which can advantageously be used in the practice of the above method is also disclosed.

Method for separating blood into blood components, and blood components

Filter medium for selectively removing leucocytes

Growing community of inventors

Oita, Japan

Takao Nishimura