For the first time, British researchers have transfused lab-grown blood into humans in a clinical trial to see how it behaves in humans. The majority of blood transfusions still rely on blood donations, and the study looked at rare, hard-to-obtain blood types. For patients like sickle cell anemia who require regular blood transfusions, the blood needs to be precisely matched or the body will reject it and the treatment will fail. And some blood types are so rare that only a few people in an entire country may be able to donate. In the case of the Bombay blood group, which was first discovered in India, there are only three units in stock across the UK. The research focused on red blood cells that carry oxygen from the lungs to other sites. The researchers first extracted red blood cell-producing stem cells from donated blood, and they grew these stem cells in large numbers in the lab to induce them to develop into red blood cells. For about three weeks, the researchers grew 50 billion red blood cells from 500,000 stem cells. After filtering, 15 billion red blood cells are obtained that can be used for blood transfusion.
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