Patients who need blood transfusion currently rely on donors to provide them with life-saving blood but this practice may end sometime in the future as a team of British scientists now report of being able to produce human blood, a breakthrough that would make it possible to literally manufacture blood in the future.
Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service medical director Marc Turner and his colleagues reported that they were able to create red blood cells that can be used for transfusions in humans as the artificial blood meets the quality and safety standards for human transfusion.
Turner has come up with a process to manufacture red blood cells using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, adult cells that have been genetically engineered into stem cell-like state. The iPS cells are cultured to turn into mature red blood cells, which are then separated from the immature cells ready for transfusion. Turner's research team has so far reached an efficiency of up to 50 percent of the stem cell turning into red blood cells, a process that takes about one month.
A trial believed to involve the treatment of three patients with thalassemia, a red blood cell disorder that requires regular transfusions, is already planned for 2016. The subjects will received around 5ml of the man-made blood and will be monitored for bad reaction. The trial may seem risky but Turner assured that the cells are safe and there are processes for removing the cells.
Turner has likewise acknowledged that a similar research has already been conducted elsewhere. A scientist in Transylvania, for instance, has already produced an artificial blood that worked on mice but the blood wasn't ready yet for use on humans. Turner said that if the 2016 trial pushes through, it would be the first time that somebody conducts a transfusion of artificial blood in humans.
"Although similar research has been conducted elsewhere, this is the first time anybody has manufactured blood to the appropriate quality and safety standards for transfusion into a human being," Turner said.
Turner's blood-making process could theoretically provide an unlimited supply of disease-free type-O blood. Turner is however cautious that people will no longer donate blood as the artificial blood will not yet likely be available in the near future.
