Blood is made in lab from stem cells

The method was 100 times more efficient than previous efforts, said Eric Bouhassira, a professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. But most of the cells had embryonic or fetal versions of globin, the compound in red blood cells that carries oxygen. Only a relative few appeared to contain the adult globin that would be needed by patients, he said.

"Whether they would be good enough for transfusion is very unclear," said Bouhassira, who wasn't involved in the study. Lanza said the research team was conducting more experiments to see whether the stem cells would produce more adult globin if given more time to mature in the lab.

Even with substantial improvements, the method faces another big hurdle. Roger Dodd, director of the American Red Cross' Holland Laboratory in Rockville, Md., said that producing blood in the lab could cost thousands of dollars per unit -- far too expensive to replace the 14 million pints of red blood cells that are transfused every year. "It's a rather ambitious goal," Dodd said.

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karen.kaplan@latimes.com