Stem cell-derived erythrocytes as upcoming players in blood transfusion.

backgroundBlood transfusion is current standard-of-care for genetic forms of anemia that would be otherwise lethal and allows implementation of aggressive cytotoxic/surgical therapies developed for numerous types of cancer. In developed countries the blood supply is adequate and sporadically even in excess. However, difficulties exist in finding blood with rare phenotypes to treat alloimmunized patients and the progressive ageing of the human population predicts that blood will become scarce by 2050. These considerations establish the need for the development of techniques to generate cultured red blood cell (cRBCs) as transfusion products. MATERIALS AND

methodsRecent progress in cell culture techniques is revolutionizing organ replacement therapies. Two new disciplines, cell therapy and tissue engineering, have been developed to generate

resultsProof-of-principle in animal models indicate that cRBCs generated from murine embryonic stem cells protect mice from lethal anemia. Conditions to generate small amounts of clinical grade cRBCs have been established and the first-in-man administration of autologous cRBCs perfomed. The results of this trial indicate that cRBCs survive DISCUSSION: These ground-breaking reports have raised great excitement for clinical evaluation of

conclusionWe are confident that development of relevant clinical goals achievable with current technologies will not only improve clinical care in transfusion medicine but will also foster studies to overcome scientific and technical barriers that render transfusion with cRBCs of the general population impractical today.