Endless, Pure New Blood From Stem Cells?

Scientists Say It Could Be Widely Available For Transfusions Within A Decade

(CBS)  It's a doctor's dream -- an unlimited supply of disease-free blood.

And it may not be the stuff of fiction for long, reports CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer.

Someone in the United States needs blood every two seconds. In surgery, on cancer words, on the nation's battlefields -- blood transfusions save lives.

But in the U.S., demand often exceeds supply. And elsewhere, especially in the developing world, there's a real chance the blood cud be contaminated with diseases such as AIDS or Hepatitis C.

Enter Dr. Marc Turner, a cell biologist from Scotland who received a multi-million dollar research grant to try to make blood in his lab from human stem cells.

"These cells are being generated from human embryonic stem cells, which themselves are generated from three-to-five-day-old human embryos," Turner says.

Palmer explains that stem cells can be coaxed, theoretically, to grow into any human body part.

Turner's team will try to make them grow into O- negative blood -- the universal donor type, useful in the vast majority of transfusions.

If they're successful, the payoff is huge: a limitless supply of blood.

Dr. Gail Roboz, a New York hematologist leukemia researcher told CBS News, "We want the fantasy; we would like a purely clean and limitless blood supply and I can tell you that, in giving a patient a consent form for a transfusion, (if) we were able to say there isn't a chance of communicating hepatitis or HIV or any of the disease that are so scary for patients, it would be a tremendous relief. And we'd never have to say to a patient, 'We don't have blood for you today' -- that would be tremendous, as well.

"The fantasy here -- what would be phenomenal -- would be if we could create infection-free blood that's laboratory generated, so it's not dependent on donors and their availability and their willingness to come in and donate. But rather, something that the doctors could actually mine in the laboratory and have available for patients in an as-needed basis. For example, if there would be a disaster of some sort, to actually rev up the process and make more.

"As a leukemia doctor, and a doctor who treats bone marrow failure, almost all of my patients are heavily transfused and dependent on the blood supply. And we worry -- there are definitely times when people will come in and we won't have the right type of blood available, or we might have to wait an extra day to find one."

Martin King's post-cancer treatment means he needs blood every three weeks.

In spite of careful matching, he knows there remains a minute chance one of his transfusions could be contaminated, or there won't be enough.

"If there's a way to make sure that the blood supply never goes down, that would be extremely helpful," King understates.

Scientists, who hope to start testing on human volunteers within three years, think stem cell blood for widespread use is still a decade away though, for millions around the world, it can't come soon enough.

[rrozsa]

They are a major news source and should know better.
Posted by CnUHerMeNow at 10:47 AM : Mar 30, 2009

=================

I've had my doubts about their being a major news source! Most of the time I hear breaking news somewhere and it's not even mentioned on CBS news site. They stick to a dozen or so headlines and don't even rotate them off the page when they are out of date.

[brainteaser2]

The JWs keep telling us to use artificial blood like you can buy it on any street corner. Now we have the potential for one and I'm going to predict they won't find it acceptable.

[labrat9999]

For the doubters...are any of you old enough to recall which country did the first heart transplant? Any idea why it was that country? Any idea how many we do in the US today? Any idea why we can do them in the US now? What to hear the argument they gave then?

[iDragon13]

More evidence that right-to-lifers don't really care about life. How many lives have been/will be forfeited unecessarily because of their nonsense? Better late than never, I guess.

[johndevinejr]

Now that Bronco Bomber said it was O.K. to chop up all those frozen festuses and do a little research, we`re gonna find a whole lotta great things to make out of those cells.
Posted by davicar2 at 11:40 AM : Mar 30, 2009

The cells are being taken from embryos, not fetuses, that would have been discarded.

It is important and ethical medical research that has been delayed for no reason.

[worm732]

Italy will have blood from adult stem cells in three years.

Search: "ITALY TO MAKE BLOOD FROM ADULT STEM CELLS"

[CnUHerMeNow]

on cancer words, are you people for REAL? Does anyone proof this stuff before you post it? How unprofessional. Have you ever heard of a cancer WARD? LMAO Don't jump on me, it's the SECOND typo. They are a major news source and should know better.

[UHSRich]

Slrman - spell checking would not have caught the error, cud is a correctly spelled word.

[SusanStoHelit]

10 years from now - everyone needs to start donating blood now - there is a real and severe shortage going on.

[sandy19731]

Hooray for science winning over religious ideology that has nothing to do with compassion.

[Slrman]

Donating blood is good. Unlimited blood is better. No matter what the Luddites opposed to stem-cell research have to say. Let them reject all medical advances made since, say, 1850.

By the way, CBS news. Have you ever heard of spell-checkers? "the blood cud be" well, the profession of journalist just is not what it used to be, is it?

[johndevinejr]

How many thousands of embryos were discarded that could have been put to use in this manner? Perhaps we will see some advances in medicine that were stifled heretofore.

[SusanStoHelit]

I've been a blood donor all my life - and we're always short - not enough people who can donate are willing to donate. This would be a great thing. No more diseases from tainted blood. In the meanwhile - if you can donate blood - GO DONATE - you will be saving lives, with a very minor investment of your time. It's safe and easy.