Erythrocytes in industrial production
The Wellcome Trust Charitable Foundation has allocated a strategic grant of 5 million pounds to a consortium of research institutions in the UK to develop a technology for mass production of transfusible erythrocytes from stem cells.
A group of researchers led by Professor Marc Turner from the Scottish National Transfusion Service has already developed a technology for the production of erythrocytes from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These cells are obtained by dedifferentiation of adult human cells, usually skin fibroblasts. Subsequent cultivation in specially selected biochemical conditions ensures the transformation of iPSCs into erythrocytes of blood group I(0), which are universal donor material.
According to Professor Turner, similar work was carried out by other groups, but for the first time he and his colleagues managed to obtain cells that meet the quality and safety standards required for drugs for intravenous administration to humans.
A clinical trial of laboratory-grown erythrocytes is scheduled for 2016 or early 2017. Most likely, 3 patients with thalassemia, a hereditary disease requiring regular blood transfusions, will take part in it. As part of the study, scientists will monitor the behavior of cells in the body. Turner also noted that there is no need to worry about the safety of the procedure, since there are methods for selectively removing bioengineered cells from the body.
The approach developed by the authors opens up huge prospects for transfusiology, since it provides the possibility of producing a huge number of red blood cells that are obviously not a source of infectious diseases and are suitable for administration to all patients.
However, bringing the production process to an industrial scale is a very difficult task and the appearance of "blood factories" is a matter of the distant future.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of the Wellcome Trust:
First volunteers to receive blood cultured from stem cells in 2016.
16.04.2014