The Development of Artificial Blood: Science Fiction Now Reality

If a poll was taken several decades ago asking if the synthesis of blood would be a reality, most people would say only in sci-fi movies. It would not be anticipated that as the United States' population steadily increased along with healthcare needs, blood would be a staple for surgery and other medical procedures. As blood shortages in American hospitals still become a problem time and time again, the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Ohio, the experimental arm of the Pentagon, has manufactured O-negative blood that could be the answer to patients who may be in need of a blood transfusion. The only problem is that the artificial blood may not see hospitals until after 2013.

In a normal functioning human, bone marrow produces red blood cells (RBCs) in a process called erythropoiesis. According to the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, the kidneys can detect low levels of oxygen in the blood. When this happens, the kidneys respond by releasing a hormone called erythropoietin, which then travels to the red bone marrow to stimulate the marrow to begin RBC production. During times of trauma when an individual loses blood at a fast pace, it is necessary for a blood transfusion to replace what RBCs have been lost. It takes an average of four days for the human body to produce RBCs, with a lifespan of about 120 days.

In the synthesis of the artiifical blood, the blood is made from hematopoietic stem cells from human umbilical cords, which are converted to RBCs. Although hematopoietic stem cells are generally used for the treatment and research of cancers, and other disorders of the blood and immune systems, researchers have decided to use the stem cells in a method called "blood pharming" which copies the function of bone marrow. The Blood Pharming program outlined by the DARPA Defense Sciences Office states that the ultimate target of the program is the development of an automated, fieldable cell culture and packaging system capable of producing transfusable amounts of universal donor RBCs using human progenitor cells as starting material. The synthesis is made possible by a progenitor-based system, one umbilical cord, that can yield 20 units of blood, which is enough for over three blood transfusions for injured soldiers during war. Since O-negative blood is the universal donating blood type, it can be received by humans who have a different blood type. During normal dispatches for blood during war, it generally takes up to three weeks for the packed blood to be received. The Pentagon assures that the blood pharming program will make it possible to cut down the time and stress.

Samples of the blood have already been submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for safe testing and evaluation, but human trials won't begin until 2013. As the Pentagon embarks on a major stepping stone in the field of medicine and science, the hospitals and blood banks are still asking their respective communities to help in the fight to end blood shortages. It appears that the Pentagon intends to make this new discovery in medicine exclusive to the military, which could be possible in about five years. The question remains, will this new discovery be available to hospitals once the military starts using the synthetic blood? No definite answers have been provided, but with the news spreading of the discovery, hospitals may start submitting requests for the synthesized blood as soon as the FDA gives the okay to market the product.

Lyn Edwards, "Artificial blood developed for the battlefield", Physorg.Com

Author unknown, "Chapter 5. Hematopoietic Stem Cells", The National Institutes of Health resource for stem cell research