Lab-Grown Blood May Represent Huge Breakthrough

New techniques that can create artificial blood in a laboratory may help revolutionise treatments and resolve problems of shortages of supply, especially for those with rare blood groups.

The first trial of such blood has been undertaken at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, with volunteers being injected with red blood cells that had been grown in a lab from stem cells donated by healthy donors.

If the trial is successful in providing viable cells that perform their tasks well for longer, it could raise the possibility of providing treatments for those with sickle cell blood disease as well as rare blood types. Such an innovation may feature heavily in life science sales as it could be adopted around the world to help patients with rare blood types or conditions.

Should the artificially-generated cells last longer in the body than the cells already there, which because they are fresh they are hoped to do, this could bring the further benefit of reducing the frequency with which patients with rare conditions might need transfusions, which will reduce the iron overload that such operations can bring. 

Professor of cell biology at the University of Bristol and director of the NIHR Blood and Transplant Unit in red cell products Ashley Toye commented: “This is the first-time lab grown blood from an allogeneic donor has been transfused and we are excited to see how well the cells perform at the end of the clinical trial.”

The prospect of being able to manufacture blood could also help organisations like the NHS when there are shortages of blood. An amber warning was issued in October for England, leading to the cancellation of some non-urgent operations. There was a particular shortage of O positive and O negative blood types.  

A lack of blood has been a concern since the pandemic, as many people have been less likely to visit towns and cities where the blood donor centres are located.