Clinical trials to explore the use of universal artificial blood are underway in Japan after initial volunteer doses began in March.
The research, led by Professor Hiromi Sakai's laboratory, plans to assess artificial blood, usable for all blood types and storable for up to two years, as a potential solution to critical shortages in blood supplies for emergency and chronic health care worldwide.
Newsweek has contacted Sakai for comment via an email to Nara Medical University.
Why It Matters
There have been other trials to explore the use of artificial blood in recent years, including in the U.S. and the U.K. While Japan's efforts are not the first, it comes amid a new push in medical research to find ways of reducing problems caused by blood shortages.
The World Health Organization estimates that more than 118 million blood donations are collected each year—with 40 percent coming from high-income countries, home to 16 percent of the world's population.
This means a large portion of the global population has limited access to blood transfusion treatment. Universal artificial blood could reduce preventable deaths in injury, surgery and childbirth—settings where supply mismatches or stockouts cost millions of lives annually in low-income nations alone.
What To Know
Nara Medical University's trial administered 100 to 400 milliliters of the artificial blood to 16 healthy adult volunteers in March, according to the local news outlet Kyodo News.
The next stage would be to examine the treatment's efficacy and safety if no side effects were reported. Newsweek has not been able to determine whether the participants experienced any side effects following the March transfusions.
Sakai's lab said on its website that the artificial blood would solve problems present in the traditional blood transfusion system, including "possibility of infection, blood type mismatching, immunological response, and short shelf life which is insufficient for stockpiling for emergency situations."
The blood was created by extracting hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying molecule, from expired donor blood—older than three weeks—and encapsulating it in a lipid shell.
Known as hemoglobin vesicles, these particles mimic natural red blood cells and can carry oxygen efficiently. They are also free of any blood type markers, making them universally compatible and virus-free.
The research builds on a 2022 trial in Japan, when artificial hemoglobin vesicles were tested to determine if they carry oxygen in the way red blood cells do.
Participants in the study experienced minor side effects from the trial, such as fever or rash, that were resolved quickly.
What People Are Saying
Ash Toye, a professor of cell biology in the School of Biochemistry at the University of Bristol, England, told Newsweek: "The launch of a new clinical trial in Japan using artificial blood product derived from human hemoglobin marks a potentially exciting step forward in transfusion medicine. While this area has long held promise, previous efforts have faced significant challenges, particularly around safety, stability, and oxygen delivery efficacy. This trial will need to demonstrate not only that the artificial blood is safe in humans but that it can perform as reliably as donor blood under a range of clinical conditions. There are advantages with an artificial blood product as you will not have to worry about compatibility, and as it's usually smaller, it can penetrate areas which are blocked, e.g., by a stroke or clot."
Toye added: "However, as it uses human hemoglobin sourced from blood donors as a starting material, it faces the same challenges in terms of infection risk as human blood. But as with normal donor human blood, they will likely mitigate this by testing. The reliance on human blood also restricts the scale that can be achieved here. But I assume at some point they will move to recombinant human blood sources. I look forward to hearing more about the artificial product and the trial."
Newsweek