Skin into Blood

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Canadian boffins make blood from human skin, put it into mice
And this time, the mice didn't die! New therapies ahead

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/08/canadian_skin_to_blood/

By Lewis Page
Posted in Biology, 8th November 2010 11:11 GMT

Canadian boffins say they have managed to make human skin turn into blood: and, cleverly, they have avoided the possible pitfall of the new blood tending to cause cancer in mice.

It was already known how to make red blood cells from stem cells, but the trouble with this method is that it produces embryonic or fetal blood - very different from adult blood. Furthermore, the practice of using "pluripotent" stem cells - ones which could become anything - can cause tumours to form in animals receiving the resulting products.

According to top Canadian blood boffin Mickie Bhatia and his team, their method involves no pluripotent cells at any stage and produces proper adult blood with red cells, white cells and platelets all complete. The method involves infecting living adult skin cells with a special virus which inserts a gene known as OCT4.

Here's PROGRESS!

 

[Giggywig]

Boffin?

ETA: Pretty cool advance anyways.

 

[Madalch]

Isn't it easier to get people to donate blood than skin?

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Isn't it easier to get people to donate blood than skin?

The person requiring blood provides a piece of skin. The blood is cloned from this. An exact match!

Human trials to start in 2012.

There were a few sites in Google in the UK and Canada that reported this news and almost none in the USA (Meanwhile the Shrubbook gets thousands of hits ). I rather liked the "boffin" hit from The Register.

 

[NewtonTrino]

Great stuff. Exactly the kind of practical application of science that we need more of.

 

[ThunderChunky]

It's a nice advance in in cellular reprogramming and hematopoiesis, but they still had to use a lentivirus to get OCT4 into the cells, that is a problem if this is going to be used on people. This is technique wouldn't be used to make blood for a transfusion, but to actually replace someone's bone marrow.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

It's a nice advance in in cellular reprogramming and hematopoiesis, but they still had to use a lentivirus to get OCT4 into the cells, that is a problem if this is going to be used on people. This is technique wouldn't be used to make blood for a transfusion, but to actually replace someone's bone marrow.

Go back and read the story again. The potential is much greater than that.

Bhatia and his colleagues report that at no stage was any sign seen of pluripotency or of embryonic forms - and when the new blood was put into experimental mice they didn't develop teratomas, a type of tumour which tends to crop up when pluripotent cells are about.

 

[ThunderChunky]

Go back and read the story again. The potential is much greater than that.

Not sure what I missed, the cells they made were blood progenitor cells. I don't see why this would be used for a simple blood transfusion... They will need to find a method to induce OCT4 without using a lentivirus if they want to use this on people though.

 

[Halfcentaur]

What is a boffin? Good to see such progress.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Not sure what I missed, the cells they made were blood progenitor cells. I don't see why this would be used for a simple blood transfusion... They will need to find a method to induce OCT4 without using a lentivirus if they want to use this on people though.

Ah. Yes. I've now also read the piece at: http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101107/full/news.2010.588.html and see that it sort of glosses over a step or two on they way to creation of transfusable blood.

I reduce my cheering to one --

 

[FreshHat]

From thefreedictionary.com :

bof·fin also Bof·fin (b f n). n. Chiefly British Slang. A scientist, especially one engaged in research. [Origin unknown.]

 

[jaydeehess]

Wasn't the thought not so much to create a blood transfusion but instead to be able to use one's own cells to produce a replacement for marrow in leukemia and other blood cancer victims?

As for producing transfusable blood. The most benefit would be that there would be no immnue response since it is your own cells.
Whenever you have a transfusion from someone else you do produce antibodies since it is an invading substance. This is no problem for several reasons UNLESS you later need an organ transplant. You will be pre-sensitized against foreign tissue and your anti-rejection drugs would have to be upped. Not a good thing.