Large-scale erythrocyte production using erythrocyte progenitor cells
Saturday, December 7, 2013 - 22:00
in Biology & Nature
By transducing two genes (c-MYC and BCL-XL) into iPS cells and ES cells, a research team has succeeded in producing erythrocyte progenitor cells with almost unlimited ability to replicate in vitro, which they then differentiated successfully into mature erythrocytes. Although these erythrocytes consisted mostly of fetal-type hemoglobin, they were confirmed to have oxygen-carrying capacity and to have circulatory capacity following transfusion into mice.