French scientists found a way to coax stem cells into becoming large quantities of red blood cells, according to the first description of the technique in the January journal Nature Biotechnology. Researchers coax the stem cells, taken from umbilical cord blood and other sources, to mature into red blood cells. When injected into mice, the circulating lab-grown cells survived as well as their naturally occurring counterparts. The method should aid laboratory studies of blood infections and may be honed to help compensate for shortages in donated blood, the researchers said. As many as 2 million intensive-care patients each year need transfusions for anemia, when the body has too few oxygen-carrying red blood cells.
