Advanced Cell claims to generate blood cells

Worcester, Mass. — Researchers at biotechnology company Advanced Cell Technology announced Thursday that they have used embryonic stem cells to grow human blood cells.

They say they can generate 10 billion to 100 billion blood cells at a time and the technique could put an end to problems hospitals have in sourcing blood for transfusions.

The chief scientific officer at Advanced Cell Technology, Dr. Robert Lanza, said that he hopes to be doing human trials of the lab-grown blood by the end of next year and that the military will probably be the first to use it.

"What we've shown is that we can generate very large quantities of red blood cells from human embryonic stem cells, and these cells are just like normal, transfusible blood," he said.

"We've actually been able to create whole tubes of blood in the lab from scratch, and we've shown for the first time that they actually are able to upload and load oxygen just like normal red blood cells."

Lanza says the team has achieved many things they were told were impossible.

"For instance, the blood cells in our body do not have nuclei, so we needed to figure out how to enucleate them, and we don't really fully understand the mechanism that is involved there, but eventually we did get them to do that," he said.

"That was a hurdle ... that we weren't sure was doable. And as far as expanding the cells yes, we were quite amazed that we could generate so many cells."

Lanza said there are a number of advantages to growing blood in the lab.

"For instance, in the battlefield, you know, for instance in Iraq when a solider gets blown up there simply isn't enough time for blood typing and so they're required to use what's known as universal blood, the type O-negative types, but that's very, very rare and there's a severe shortage," he said.

"So obviously, for instance, the military is very keen to be able to have enough blood and so this would be one method that would enable us to virtually have an unlimited supply of blood so that we would never really have to worry about the medical need.

"And this is similar, I think, also for the general public. This technology would give us a safety net that would allow you to order back-up blood when the supplies start running low and so you would never run into a medical crisis," he added. "And then, of course, there's another advantage in that ... you can create these cells in the lab without any pathogens so that you wouldn't have to worry about hepatitis, AIDS or other infectious diseases."

He says the process can be used to create all the blood types.

The next step is to make sure the lab-grown blood cells maintain their integrity in the same way normal blood cells do.

"These studies are ongoing, and so we'll absolutely need to make sure that they are completely safe for us, of course, and animals, but ultimately we will need to test these in humans," he said.

"I think the very first steps would be to use small amounts, say a few (milliliters) of these cells that were labeled, and make sure they behave appropriately in patients."

Lanza said that although embryonic stem cells were used in this study, he is confident other types of stem cells could be used.

"This is a differentiation method, so it should also work equally well with the new, what we call iPS cells. These are reprogrammed cells from the adult and they should be able to do the same trick," he said.

Advanced's research facility is in Worcester. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles.