In a major breakthrough in the world of medical science, scientists successfully transfused lab-grown artificial blood into two patients during a clinical trial. The blood has been made in a lab based in the UK and only a few drops of the artificial blood were given to the patients to detect its effect on the human body. If the long-term effects are neutral, the invention of this kind could be revolutionary.
The synthetic blood was made by using use magnetic beads to isolate and remove stem cells capable of becoming red blood cells from a normal, single-pint donation of blood. Thereafter, the stem cells are cultivated to grow in massive numbers before being guided to become red blood cells. As reported, the whole production requires approximately three weeks and a starting pool of half a million stem cells to make up 50 billion red blood cells. Out of the total, some 15 billion are at the proper development stage which can be used for transplantation.
It is also estimated that this artificial blood could be more potent and last longer than human donations. Human blood donations are a mixture of young and old blood cells, however, the artificial variety is much newer and it could possibly extend the time between patients’ necessary donation times in the near future if the results of the trials are promising.
It is a known fact that obtaining blood for those with rarer blood types or demanding medical conditions like blood cancers in which patients need regular transfusions can often be tiresome and difficult. There have been numerous instances where in patients could not procure the required lifesaving type and units of blood. The availability of such kind of blood will be a boon to all such patients and the medical science as a whole.
