CASTRIES St. Lucia, October 13th 2011 - A world first: the team led by Professor Luc Douay at Saint-Antoine hospital, Pierre and Marie Curie-Inserm University in Paris has managed to create red blood cells from stem cells in the laboratory and transfuse them back into their donor. A French achievement that is leading the way to the production of banks of stem cells for blood transfusions.
For the first time, functional red blood cells have been produced from stem cells in the laboratory and reinjected into a human body. Professor Luc Douay, from the Pierre and Marie Curie Medical Faculty at Saint- Antoine AP-HP hospital, an Inserm joint research unit, and his team in Paris carried out their research in partnership with the French National Blood Service (EFS), which runs the country’s blood donation service. The results of their successful creation of red blood cells from stem cells grown in vitro were published in the American journal Blood.
The need for blood transfusions is growing steadily in France and throughout the world. Scientists have been working for years to find alternative solutions to prevent a potential shortage. “Our first challenge was to produce functional red blood cells which have the same abilities as natural red blood cells, whose function is to transport oxygen to every tissue in the body,” explains Prof. Luc Douay.
Stem cells were taken from the donor’s blood, then cultivated in a suitable medium with a high level of growth factors until they had developed into young red blood cells. They were then re-injected into the same volunteer to finish maturing. The results: the lifetime and survival rate of the cultured cells proved to be similar to normal transfused red blood cells.
A traditional blood pack contains 400 ml, i.e. 2,000 billion cells. The researchers have successfully produced several billion red blood cells in the laboratory. Umbilical cord blood, however, also contains large quantities of hematopoietic stem cells. “These could provide an effective and rapid alternative precisely because of their excellent ability to proliferate,” notes Prof. Douay. Red blood cells can also be produced in unlimited numbers from pluripotent adult stem cells, which can multiply ad infinitum.
So what is the next step? The aim for 2015 is to move from laboratory production to industrial production. “We have created a French consortium of several teams of academics and biotechnology companies to develop an industrial production facility for red blood cells. The aim is to produce these cells on a continuous basis. We will be starting clinical trials within three or four years, and they will then take another three or four years to run,” observes Luc Douay.
What clinical applications can we expect to see? In developed countries, the main benefit will be to very vulnerable patients. “This discovery will primarily be of benefit to people with rare blood groups and people who have received multiple transfusions and developed immunity,” explains Prof. Douay. “Transfusing cultured red blood cells is a major breakthrough for the future of medicine, because it would enable us to provide the right type of blood to all patients when traditional transfusion is unable to meet their needs.”
The new approach would also provide a comprehensive solution in countries lacking an efficient transfusion system. In the end, the aim is to make up for the shortfall in the supply of blood donations and create production facilities for red blood cells. This will, however, require further technological advances. In the meantime, the need for blood donors remains as high as ever.
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