Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) may occur whenever immunologically competent allogenic lymphocytes are transfused to an immunocompromised host. This risk has been minimized by irradiating blood products before transfusion to prevent donor lymphocytes from dividing, engrafting, and establishing an immune response against the recipient following transfusion. In institutions with access to a blood product irradiator, the blood products are irradiated immediately prior to transfusion. In many institutions, however, the lack of easy access to an irradiator necessitates that an inventory be maintained of blood products that have been irradiated elsewhere. The purpose of this project is to determine the effect of 3000 Rad irradiation on in vitro function and in vivo survival of red cells stored for the maximum permissible time (42 days) in the preservative solution AS-I (Adsol). Six normal volunteers have been recruited for the study. Each subject will donate two units of whole blood (450 ml each) into AS- 1 blood preservative solution. One unit will be collected and stored normally as packed red cells at 4 degree C for 42 days. The other unit will be irradiated with 3000 Rad within 4 hours of collection using a cesium-137 blood irradiator and then stored for 42 days. The sequence of these donations will be randomly decided and will be at least 12 weeks apart. None of the subjects has completed the study at this time.
