Advanced Cell Technology Inc. scientists were able to make up to 100 billion red blood cells that would be enough to fill two or three collection tubes from a single plate of embryonic stem cells.
The research team, which involved scientists from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, outlined a four-step process for turning embryonic stem cells into red blood cells capable of carrying as much oxygen as normal blood. The procedure was published online in the journal Blood.
California-based Advanced Cell said in the study that they had produced blood of types A-positive, A-negative, B-positive, B-negative and O-positive and the new method was far more efficient than previous efforts.
However, the researchers cautioned that although the discovery marks a significant technical advance, more research is needed before it could be considered a realistic alternative to donor blood.
Blood shortages delay hundreds of surgeries in the U.S. annually. 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.
