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Red blood cell manufacture breakthrough


Still Waters

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Scientists say they have made a significant leap towards mass-producing red blood cells suitable for donation.

Red blood cells can already be made in the lab, but the problem is scale.

A team at the University of Bristol and NHS Blood and Transplant have developed a method to produce an unlimited supply.

The artificial blood will be far more expensive than conventional donation. So it is likely to be used for people with very rare blood types.

The old technique involved taking a type of stem cell that manufactures red blood cells in the body and coaxing it to do so in the lab.

However, each cell eventually burns out and produces no more than 50,000 red blood cells.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39354627

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O blood types are in highest demand, because anyone can receive O-, and because O+ is both the most common and compatible with all positive types.

The last time that I donated blood was in small enough community that it might've gone to immediate use.  A pile up on the highway, involving a semi-

truck, was announced on the radio in the blood collection center while they were drawing my blood.

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