British researchers have transfused healthy volunteers with lab-grown blood for the first time, in a groundbreaking study that could revolutionize treatments for people with blood problems.
The blood for the RESTORE trial (experiment name) was made from stem cells taken from blood donors. In the current phase of the study, the objective is to analyze the useful life of blood cells created in the laboratory compared to that of donors.
The research, carried out by researchers in Bristol, Cambridge and London, as well as NHS Blood and Transplant, focuses on the red blood cells that carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. Synthetic blood cells are expected to last longer, specifically red blood cells to reach approximately 120 days before being replaced, something that donor cells do not.
If the trial is successful - and lab-grown blood cells are found to last longer in the body - those who are transfused with synthetic blood will need transfusions less frequently, which leads to fewer complications.
"It's really great that we can now grow enough medical-grade red blood cells to allow this trial to start, and we're looking forward to seeing the results and seeing if they work better than standard red blood cells," said Dr. Rebecca Cardigan, Head of Development at Components of the NHSBT.
This is how it works:
- Scientists start with a normal donation of half a liter of blood (about 470 ml).
- Magnetic fields are used to extract flexible stem cells that are capable of becoming red blood cells. These stem cells are stimulated to grow in large numbers in laboratories and then guided to become red blood cells.
- The process takes about three weeks, and from an initial pool of about half a million stem cells, 50 billion red blood cells are produced.
- These are filtered to obtain around 15 billion red blood cells at the right stage of development for transplantation.
So far, no adverse side effects have been detected in people transfused with the synthetic blood. The authors maintain that red blood cell culture could "revolutionize treatments for people with blood disorders such as sickle cell disease or with unusual blood types."
