Anschutz Medical Campus researchers discover new process to cultivate adult blood cells

Researchers on the Anschutz Medical Campus have discovered a scientific process that could make blood drives a thing of the past.

Yosef Refaeli and Brian Turner, co-founders of Taiga Biotechnologies Inc., have developed a new method in which they use their proprietary blood stem-cell lines from cord blood to generate mature, adult red blood cells in the lab in 14 days.
The blood stem-cell lines are cultured in tissue-culture dishes with a special mixture that supports stem-cell growth and placed in an incubator that aims to mimic conditions in the human body. Typically, the mixture has salts and nutrients that enable cells to grow in a dish.
"All cells need a special kind of media to grow in the lab," Refaeli said. "We have devised a special kind of media that either supports blood stem-cell growth in a dish for extended periods of time or enables us to push them to develop into red blood cells." ..............
.....If Taiga is successful, the implications could be huge.
It would ensure the blood supply is easily replenished, its shelf life is longer and it is not contaminated with infectious diseases. The blood type produced would be O negative, the universal donor type.......

.....The ability to make blood would be of enormous benefit to the military. Forty percent of all field casualties occur within the first hour of injury, and roughly half of those are because blood wasn't available fast enough, said Refaeli, who envisions a mobile laboratory that could grow blood and be put on the front lines in military conflicts.

It also would benefit some cancer patients, such as those with multiple myeloma who need more than one unit of blood a day for at least a year.
Hospitals and emergency rooms nationwide need about 40,000 units of blood daily to treat patients with cancer and other diseases, for organ-transplant recipients and to help save the lives of accident/trauma victims, according to AABB, an international, nonprofit association representing people and institutions involved in transfusion medicine and cellular therapies.
In 2006, more than 30 million blood components were transfused, according to AABB. With an aging population and advances in medical treatments and procedures requiring blood transfusions, the demand for blood continues to increase.
About 38 percent of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood, but less than 10 percent does so annually, according to AABB....

Read more: Anschutz Medical Campus researchers discover new process to cultivate adult blood cells - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_18213602#ixzz0Y701zV8l

Source:  Margaret Jackson, http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_18213602