Donor derived blood cell lines for research
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Production of cell lines derived from donors capable of differentiating to erythroid, neutrophil, macrophage, megakaryocyte cells and multipotent lines capable of differentiating to all these cell types.
IRAS ID
347296
Contact name
Ashley Toye
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bristol
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Donated blood products such as red blood cells, platelets and neutrophils are critical components of medical care. However, the restricted availability of such transfusion products presents a global healthcare problem. This is especially problematic for rare blood group types and chronically transfused individuals such as those with sickle cell disease who can develop an alloimmune reaction, requiring extensively matched donors.
The ability to generate a sustainable source of these cells would overcome the risk of alloimmunisation, transmittable infections, and lack of supply relative to demand. We have developed methodology that can immortalise donor stem cells to produce erythroid cell lines. Using this methodology, we want to create neutrophil, monocyte/macrophage and megakaryocyte cell lines, as well creating an immortalised stem cell line with multipotent blood cell type potential. This allows us to create disease model systems to both study the underlying molecular defects of disease and as drug screening platforms.
Due to a shortage of donated blood with rare blood groups, we also want to make cell lines from rare blood group donors. Once created, these cells will be used for research to demonstrate the feasibility of scaling-up the production of red blood cells using bioreactors, as well as to study their differentiation and enucleation potential. We also want to make cell lines from patients with diseases of interest such as sickle cell anaemia or other rare blood cell diseases in order to study the underlying molecular defects. Although this can be studied in the laboratory by generating freshly made red blood cells (called reticulocytes) using donor isolated stem cells as starting material, they exhaust in culture meaning the cultures are finite and thus repeat collections are required. Therefore, a cell line made from disease patient cells would be a valuable research tool.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - South Yorkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/YH/0042
Date of REC Opinion
24 Apr 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion