Lab-Grown Blood Given to People in World-First Clinical Trial

News Desk

Islamabad: British experts began human trials of laboratory-produced blood and initially injected very small amounts of blood into two healthy individuals. British experts first prepared human blood in the laboratory in 2017, which has now been injected into the human body for the first time.

Experts from three different areas injected red cells produced in the laboratory into their bodies in two healthy people, who will be given blood produced in the laboratory again every four months.

According to experts, 10 volunteers have been recruited for the research, but initially only two volunteers will be tested with blood prepared in the laboratory. The volunteers will be given blood, once prepared in a laboratory and once donated by a normal human being, and each time their tests will be conducted to assess the performance of the blood and its potential harm or adverse effects.

Experts hope that blood prepared in a laboratory will give better results than blood received as a donation from ordinary people. Experts took stem cells (compounds) from human blood and produced red cells from them in the laboratory, and 50 billion red cells were produced from 500,000 stem cells within three weeks.

According to scientists, blood prepared in a laboratory will cost less than each bag of blood donated by humans. Experts say that if laboratory-prepared blood yields good results, it will end the long-standing problem of millions of people around the world and ease the treatment of people suffering from various blood diseases.

According to experts, the purpose of blood preparation in the laboratory is to make blood of those rare blood groups that have very few people in the world. At present, there are only three people of a blood group called ‘Mumbai’ worldwide, one of whom is in India while two people live in the UK.

Similarly, the number of people with certain rare blood groups is up to 10 and it becomes impossible to ensure the blood of such people in an emergency. Experts have expressed hope that the good results of the laboratory-prepared blood will facilitate the treatment of people suffering from anaemia and other blood viruses, including thalassemia.