At their October meeting the WHO endorsed a project looking at creating a platelet flow cytometry standard.
The standard will be developed by the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, a centre of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (UK), in collaboration with the SilkFusion consortium.
The flow cytometry standard will allow groups around the world to assess platelets for size/granularity, expression of 2 key surface receptors (CD41 and CD42) and viability. Such a standard will have key relevance to both donor-derived platelets currently in clinical use for transfusion and those new platelet products manufactured in vitro.
It will represent a key reagent for quality control during manufacturing process but also during the development of new platelet products in academic research.