Lab-made blood transfused to humans for the first time

For the first time in the world, lab-grown blood has been transfused to people. This success has been achieved in clinical trials conducted in Britain. Scientists from many institutions including Cambridge and Bristol University are involved in this trial. Experts say that this will help in the treatment of people with blood disorders and rare blood types.
In this process of making blood in the lab, the focus is on red blood cells. They take oxygen from the lungs and carry it to every part of the body. Scientists first make a normal donation of a person's blood. Its volume is about 470 ml.
After this, those stem cells are separated from the sample through magnets, which can go on to become red blood cells. Stem cells are found in the bone marrow, from which the three important cells of the blood - are red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.
In the next step, scientists grow stem cells in large numbers in the laboratory. These are then guided to be converted into red blood cells. The whole process takes about 3 weeks. During this, 50 billion red blood cells are made from 5 lakh stem cells. They filter 15 billion red blood cells, which can be used in transplants.
Researchers said that only 2 people have been included in the research. However, the entire trial will be done on 10 healthy people. They will be given two blood donations of 5 to 10 ml at an interval of 4 months. One of these will be normal blood and the other blood made in the lab. There is also a radioactive substance in the lab blood, from which its performance will be tracked.
Normally red blood cells last 120 days in the body. After this, new sales take their place. The blood received in normal donation contains both new and old red blood cells. But the blood cells made in the lab are completely new. That's why scientists expect it to last for a full 120 days. Due to this, patients will need fewer blood donations in future.
According to Britain's National Health Service Blood and Transplant, an average blood donation costs 145 euros, or Rs 13,666. The cost of blood prepared in the lab will be more than this. The institute says that no price has been fixed for this technology yet, but as the technology progresses, its cost will come down.