Test tube tray containing a number of purple-tipped vacutainer blood-collection tubes.
Image Credit: CDC/ Amanda Mills
Blood substitutes have long been on the wish list of hospitals and the military. Interestingly, Google identified a Nov 21, 1979 article from the Milwaukee Journal telling about the first synthetic blood trial of a substitute named Fluosol-DA. After all that time, it is still the only blood substitute approved by the FDA. Alas, it was discontinued in 1992 because it had problems with frozen storage and rewarming.
(The FDA just approved Hemacord, which is a cord blood product.)
Wikipedia explains oxygen-carrying has been difficult to achieve in blood substitutes. It also adds that the DoD has been experimentally creating blood from hematopoietic stem cells obtained from newborn umbilical cords.
For the First Time, Lab-Grown Blood is Pumped into a Human's Veins tells that researchers in Paris extracted hematopoietic stem cells from bone marrow and coaxed them into becoming red blood cells. About 2 milliliters of blood was produced and then injected back into the volunteer's body. The survival rate for these red blood cells was about the same as for normal cells produced by bone marrow - 41 to 63 percent remain after 26 days.
Haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) live within the bone marrow and have the ability to become any of the different types of blood cells. The bone marrow continually replenishes its stem cell line, so as stem cells die off, they are replaced with new stem cells that produce future differentiated (specific) blood cells.
Industry observers believe it will be at least three more years before this technique becomes viable. It obviously decreases the probability of passing blood carried disease such as HIV, other viruses and even prions.
Stem cell technology is the solution for many disorders. See: http://www.sciencedebate.com/science-blog/what-are-stem-cells-embryonic-and-adult-stem-cells. It is interesting that blood banks may go out of business if this technology is found to be commercially viable. In addition, in times of natural disasters, instead of waiting for volunteers to donate blood, the stem cell derived product would become very helpful.
Posted by: Sam | December 28, 2011 at 08:01 PM