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Blood that has been grown in a laboratory has been put into people in a world’s first clinical trial, UK researchers say, report agencies.
Tiny amounts - equivalent to a couple of spoonfuls - are being tested to see how it performs inside the body.
The team, led by scientists in the United Kingdom, successfully grew red blood cells, an equivalent of a couple of teaspoons, before transferring them to two volunteers.
Normally, red blood cells are formed in the red bone marrow of bones. The spongy tissue is found in the middle of specific bones.
The bulk of blood transfusions will always rely on people regularly rolling up their sleeve to donate.
But the ultimate goal is to manufacture vital, but ultra-rare, blood groups that are hard to get hold of.
This offers new hope for patients with various disorders such as sickle cell anaemia, rare blood types, as well as other blood disorders that have been affecting people for ages.
The researchers, from the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge, NHS trusts and NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), used a manual process after harvesting stem cells from donated blood.
These are necessary for people who depend on regular blood transfusions for conditions such as sickle cell anaemia.
If the blood is not a precise match then the body starts to reject it and the treatment fails. This level of tissue-matching goes beyond the well-known A, B, AB and O blood groups.
Prof Ashley Toye, from the University of Bristol, said some groups were “really, really rare” and there “might only be 10 people in the country” able to donate.
At the moment, there are only three units of the “Bombay” blood group - first identified in India - in stock across the whole of the UK
The research project combines teams in Bristol, Cambridge, London and at NHS Blood and Transplant. It focuses on the red blood cells that carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.
