London - The NHS is to start using blood grown in the laboratory in trials on patients.
Scientists have made it by using stem cells taken from umbilical cords and from adult donors.
The “artificial” blood will not do away with the need for donations.
Instead it will be used initially to treat people with rare blood types and conditions.
The tests – to start in 2017 – will be carried out on healthy volunteers and involve only 5-10ml of blood.
Creating huge volumes of mass produced blood is still a distant prospect but would have the advantage of it not being tainted by diseases carried by living donors.
Around 7 500 people, mainly haemophiliacs, received blood infected with hepatitis C or HIV before 1991 – when the NHS bought blood from “skid row” donors in the US.
Dr Nick Watkins, assistant director of research and development at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “Scientists across the globe have been investigating for a number of years how to manufacture red blood cells to offer an alternative to donated blood to treat patients. We are confident that by 2017 our team will be ready to carry out the first early-phase clinical trials in human volunteers.
“These trials will compare manufactured cells with donated blood. The intention is not to replace blood donation but provide specialist treatment for specific patient groups.”
Patients with complex blood types and blood conditions such as sickle cell anaemia, which affects 12 500 Britons, and thalassemia, which affects 1 000 more, willbenefit if the trials are successful.
Patients with these conditions need regular blood transfusions throughout their lives and visit a clinic up to three times a week.
Blood donor numbers have fallen by around 40 percent over the past decade. Last year 1.7 million donations were made. A volunteer typically gives a “unit” or pint of blood – 470ml – and the average hospital gets through 6 000 units a week.
Daily Mail