Blood From Stem Cells

摘要

Could human blood be grown in a laboratory? In August researchers demon-strated a method of using human embryonic stem cells (hESC) to generate functional, oxygencarrying erythrocytes, or red blood cells, in sufficient quanti-ties to be used for transfusion. The cells are not quite the same as natural red blood cells. The proteins in them are characteristic of fetal and embryonic cells rather than of mature erythrocytes, and the authors take care to call them "erythroid cells" rather than true erythrocytes. Still, the new cells have no nucleus, which is a distinguishing feature of mature red blood cells.