First volunteers receive lab grown red cells

NHS Blood and Transplant

The first volunteers have been treated with laboratory grown red blood cells in a pioneering UK project, it has been announced.

Two volunteers have so far received trial transfusions, NHS Blood and Transplant announced.

Patient Yvonne Smith, aged 69, received two transfusions from the same donor in a blinded study. One treatment was a direct transfusion of the donor’s cells, the second a transfusion of cells generated in the laboratory from the donor’s stem cells.

Scientists working on the project are seeking to compare the behaviour of the laboratory-grown cells with cells used in normal donations, checking for safety and unexpected benefits or side-effects.

If successful, the trial, known as RESTORE, will open up new sources of blood, especially for conditions where services struggle to access enough donated blood, such as for sickle cell treatment.

Co-Chief Investigator Professor Cedric Ghevaert, Professor in Transfusion Medicine and Consultant Haematologist at the University of Cambridge and NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “This clinical trial is ground breaking because it is a first time we are producing red cells in the laboratory in such a way we can compare how they behave after transfusion compared to standard donated red cells.