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CENTER NEWS - THURSDAY, JULY 17, 1997 OFF THE TOP Cryo handles cells between harvesting, transplant  In the early days of bone marrow transplantation, researchers aimed to get the cells out of the donor and into the recipient as quickly as possible in hopes they would take.      However, in the years since, they've learned there's a lot they can do to the cells while they're "out of body" to improve chances of a successful transplant.      For example, donor and recipient need no longer be the same ABO blood type: The red blood cells can be removed from the marrow.      Even more exciting are new techniques to remove or enhance immune-reactive cells in order to reduce the risk of graft-versus-host disease or disease relapse after transplantation.      At the Center, the handling of cells between harvesting and transplantation is the domain of the Cryobiology Laboratory, three floors below ground level in the Columbia Building and open seven days a week.      Medical director Dr. Scott Rowley says the lab processes 1,400 stem cell or bone marrow collections per year in support of transplant programs at the Center and other Seattle-area medical institutions. It performs a variety of tests and separation and concentration procedures on those cells, and it provides cold storage for the cells until they can be transplanted.      Indeed, it's the lab's cold-storage function that gives "the cryo lab" its name, since "cryo" comes from the Greek word for "cold."      The lab's cold-storage capacity has become increasingly important with the growth in autologous transplantation of peripheral stem cells. These cells typically remain outside the patient's body for weeks to months until the patient is ready to receive high-dose chemotherapy that would have killed them. How they're cared for before they're put back can mean the difference between life and death.      The cryo lab's high-tech equipment includes a computer-controlled freezer that can cool cells at a controlled rate of one degree per minute. The lab also has a dozen large, liquid nitrogen freezers than can hold the cells in long-term storage at temperatures ranging from minus 180 to minus 195 degrees Centigrade.      Freezers are "extensively alarmed" because, as Rowley says, "people's lives depend upon it."      Currently, about 1,200 patients' cells are stored in cryo lab freezers. The total of 4,500 cell packets are carefully labeled and tracked:      "We have to know where the cells are in these refrigerators," says Rowley, peering into one of the nitrogen-vapor-filled freezers. "As you can see, it's pretty anonymous down there."      The Cryobiology Laboratory is a core resource of the Center, used extensively by the transplant program and other clinical division investigators, although less by other divisions.      Rowley says that in addition to its super-safe freezers, the lab offers a staff with considerable expertise in cell processing. Lab supervisor Beth MacLeod, for example, has been with the Center for 18 years and with the Cryo Lab for eight.