Approximately 2 million red blood cell (RBC) donations are collected by NHS Blood and Transplant and transfused each year, but there are a small number of patients with rare blood group types for whom NHS Blood and Transplant cannot meet the transfusion requirements. New red blood cells can be grown from human blood stem cells in the laboratory. We hope that this will provide us with a novel transfusion product for these patients in the future, as well as patients who require regular transfusions throughout life (e.g. for thalassemia or sickle cell disease).
The RESTORE clinical trial aims to find out whether red blood cells grown in the laboratory last longer in the circulation in the body than standard donated red blood cells. The blood cells grown in the laboratory are all young whereas in standard donated blood the red cells will be of varying ages, from young cells to those that are reaching the end of their life span (blood cells last in the body for about 120 days normally).
The first phase of the programme, RESTORE-i, is a feasibility study which aims to establish a blood group compatible panel of potential recipients (registered with the Cambridge BioResource) who express an interest to participate in the proposed RESTORE clinical trial.
Organisation: This study is organised by Professor Cédric Ghevaer at the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge.
