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Artificial Blood can Save Your Life

Creator: Dr. Krishanga
Keywords: blood transfusion, artificial blood, lab-made blood, blood disorders, accidents.

by Dr. Krishanga on November 11, 2022 at 1:16 PM

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Highlights:

RESTORE TRIAL helps in generation of artificial blood
Artificial blood results show promising results in phase I of human trial
Artificial blood can help patients in need of emergency transfusion and blood disorders

Nearly 12,000 individuals die in India each day, due to non-availability of quality blood but now there is a ray of hope to save every person who does not have a suitable match for their blood group with this new break through research

The RESTORE TRIAL

The RESTORE TRIAL is a single-center, randomized, controlled, phase I cross-over trial that was conducted to restore the blood cells. This came out as a joint effort between the National Health Service (NHS) Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) and the University of Bristol.

The trial aimed in determining whether or not blood cells can be manufactured from donor stem cells and if they do, can they perform all the normal functions as the human red blood cells.

‘Lab-made blood shows quality mimicking the normal blood giving a ray of hope to save human life.’

The plus side of this technology is that artificially grown RBC's are freshly made unlike the human blood that is stored using various methods.

Can Blood be Produced Artificially?

To make artificial RBCs, the first step is to separate the stem cells from the RBC of the donor. Detection of the stem cells is done using magnetic beads that helped in tracking down the flexible stem cells. These flexible stem cells are going to be the future transformed RBCs.

Once isolated, the stem cells are then placed in a nutrient rich solution that helps in supporting their development into mature RBCs. After which they are incubated for a period of three weeks within this nutrient solution. The newly formed RBCs are then purified, and tagged with a radioactive substance that helps the scientists to monitor the how long would these blood cells survive in the body of the recipient.

Success of Artificial Blood Transfusions

Recently, two patients were enrolled into the RESTORE trial where they underwent the transfusion of artificially produced blood. They initially started with transfusion of very small amounts, between five and ten milliliters (ml).

Both individuals appeared to have tolerated the transfusions well and did not report of any notable side effects.

The RESTORE TRIAL is now working to recruit at least ten participants who will undergo two similarly small transfusions with a gap of at least four months. As per the protocol, One transfusion will include artificially grown cells, whereas the other will receive red blood cells from the same donor.

Although there is a need for more research pertaining to this where there is assessment of the artificial blood as compared to the human RBCs and specific analysis needs to be done in order to understand if these artificially grown blood cells can have a positive impact on different health conditions, the RESTORE trial will enable the opportunity to provide important information on the safety of these manufactured cells and support additional research in the future.

Effect of Artificial Blood on the Human System

These manufactured red blood cells that are produced during the RESTORE TRIAL have shown results where they can remain in circulation and perform much better than human donor blood samples, this approach will in turn help in reducing the number of transfusions needed by the patients. This way the iron overload will decrease on the patient and reduce the risk of complications.

How will Lab Grown Blood Help Humankind?

There are a number of RBC disorders including diseases like anemia that requires the affected patients to receive blood transfusions to prevent infection, bleeding, and fatigue.

In addition to this Thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder that prevents the patients from producing their own hemoglobin, can only be treated with regular blood transfusions. Conversely, patients with hemophilia and Von Willebrand disease, that are characterized by excessive bleeding, may also require blood transfusions in emergency situations.

Generally, in patients with such blood disorders, blood transfusions also act as lifesaving treatment options.

In emergency cases like accidents, blood transfusion can help in saving life and with this technology, blood can be produced immediately to help the patient.

This way can prove effective in the treatment of patients and help in saving more lives that we are unable to due to lack of quality blood. Furthermore, the high cost of blood units can be avoided as the frequency would reduce with artificial blood.

Source: Medindia

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