Blood grown from stem cells could transform transfusions

Lab-grown blood would take enormous pressure off the transfusion service Photograph: Ab Still Ltd/ AB Still Ltd/Science Photo Library/Corbis

In 2007, a team of researchers from the UK and Irish Blood services responded to an oddly specific call from the US military. They wanted scientists to help them build a machine, no bigger than two and a half washing machines, that could be dropped from a helicopter on to a battle field and generate stem-cell-derived blood for injured soldiers.

The teams application was not successful, but they refocused their efforts and set off on a more utopian mission to develop a similar technology to create a limitless supply of clean, laboratory-grown blood for use in clinics around the world. Using blood made from stem cells would unshackle blood services from the limits of human supply, and any risk of infection would be removed.

Theyve been working with embryonic or induced pluripotent stem cells, which, given the right culture conditions, can differentiate into any type of cells. Still at least a year from human testing, the team have tweaked their protocol to select only red blood cells.

Because we make them from human cells they are as nature intended, says Joanne Mountford, of the University of Glasgow, who leads the project along with Marc Turner, the medical director of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service.

Its the same thing your body makes but were just doing it in a lab.

Lab-grown blood has advantages over blood from a donor. If I take a bag of blood from your arm, some cells would be brand new, she explains.

But some of them would be 110 or 120 days old and about to die. These cells wont do you much good. Using engineered red blood cells from a single batch, the team proposes, will ensure that recipients receive younger, fresher, and potentially more effective blood.

Another advantage is that they are making type-O blood, which can be given to practically all patients including those with rare AB-negative blood. A limitless supply of this type of blood would remove the logistical headache of juggling different types of blood, simplifying global distribution logistics, and allowing the blood to flow more freely to where it is needed.

Ted Bianco, director of Innovations at the Wellcome Trust, which funds the project, speaks excitedly about its potential, but says that challenges exist in translating such research to clinical practice, especially when trying to replace human blood donors as the source of supply for lifesaving transfusions.

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Blood grown from stem cells could transform transfusions