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Bloomberg.com: News: "Advanced Cell Makes Blood From Embryonic Stem Cells (Update1)

By John Lauerman

Advanced Cell Makes Blood From Embryonic Stem Cells (Update1)

By John Lauerman

Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Advanced Cell Technology Inc. scientists said they have developed a way to make human blood from embryonic stem cells, opening the door to a potential new source of often-scarce supplies.

The red blood cells can carry and deliver oxygen, and have other vital features of normal cells, Alameda, California-based Advanced Cell said in the study, published today online by the journal Blood. The research, which involved scientists from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, produced as many as 100 billion red cells from a single dish of stem cells.

Blood shortages delay hundreds of surgeries in the U.S. annually, and the military is seeking sources of fresh blood for combat casualties. Embryonic stem cells, which can make any cell type, might offer a fresh blood source for hospitals and the battlefield, said Robert Lanza, vice president of medical and scientific development for Advanced Cell.

``This is a scalable process, and there's virtually no limit to the amount of blood you could produce, given the time and resources,'' Lanza said yesterday in a telephone interview from his office in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Advanced Cell gained a penny, or 23 percent, to 5 cents in over the counter trading at 4 p.m. New York time, and has lost 84 percent in the past 12 months.

About 15 million units of blood were collected in the U.S. in 2004, according to the Nationwide Blood Collection and Utilization Survey Report in 2005, the latest year for which data are available. Regional and local supplies fall short when adequate numbers of donors can't be found.

Mouse Tissue

Lanza's team put the embryonic stem cells on a layer of mouse tissue that provides nourishment, where they grew into blood cells progenitors called hemangioblasts. The scientists used a cocktail of chemicals to get the progenitor cells to make red blood cells.

Crucial to the experiment was making sure the blood cells would load and unload oxygen at the proper times, their normal function in the body. About 60 percent of the red blood cells also lacked a nucleus, the structure that contains DNA in most cells. Normal red blood cells have no nuclei.

The scientists were able to make enough blood to fill a small test-tube. While testing the cells in animals and people would probably take several years, making greater amounts of blood is within reach, he said.

``It's clearly doable,'' he said. ``It's just a matter of improving efficiency and containing costs.''

Need For Blood

At least 546 elective surgeries were delayed in 2004 because of short blood supplies, according to the report. New York issued an urgent appeal for blood donors in 2006 when supplies fell dangerously low, and last year the American Red Cross issued a similar alert for New Jersey and parts of Pennsylvania.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, the Defense Department's research and development office, is encouraging new ways to generate blood for use on the battlefield. At a workshop last year, defense scientists described their desire to develop an ``in-theater culture system'' to produce fresh red blood cells to treat injured soldiers.

Using embryonic stem cells for this purpose has been hampered by President George W. Bush's policy, which restricts government funding for research to designated existing lines of cells, Lanza said. None of the Bush-approved colonies of stem cells are from embryos with O-negative blood, the universal donor blood type, which is ideal for civilian and military applications, he said.

Alternative Source

An alternative source of safe, fresh blood would be good news for patients and hospitals, said Louis Katz, past president of America's Blood Centers, a Washington-based group of private collection companies. Donated blood must be tested for numerous infections, such as the AIDS virus, and some research suggests that even short-term storage may harm blood vessels in transfused people, he said.

``A robust supply of red blood cells is a great thing,'' Katz said yesterday in a telephone interview. ``I don't care if it comes out of a vat or a donor.''

Katz's Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center in Davenport, Iowa, charges about $200 for a unit of blood. Each packet undergoes about $55 worth of testing for HIV, liver viruses and other contaminants, he said.

New tests are added as germs, such as West Nile virus, are discovered to be transmitted through transfused blood. Emory University in Atlanta said yesterday that it will receive $8 million over five years from the government to find ways to protect babies with blood cancers from transfusion-related infections.

Blood from embryonic stem cells could be produced free of such infections, and without immune cells that can attack transfusion recipients, Lanza said. He produced his cells from four embryonic lines, one supplied by the government, two made by Advanced Cell, and one from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Lauerman in Boston at jlauerman@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: August 19, 2008 16:25 EDT