Artificial Bone Marrow in a Test Tube

Filed in archive Other Biotechnology News on December 24, 2008

Researchers have developed an artificial bone marrow that could continuously produce red and white blood cells in vitro.

The substance grows on a 3-D scaffold that mimics the tissues supporting bone marrow in the body, said Nicholas Kotov, a professor in the U-M departments of Chemical Engineering; Materials Science and Engineering; and Biomedical Engineering.

The marrow is not made to be implanted in the body, like most 3-D biomedical scaffolds. It is designed to function in a test tube

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Like normal bone marrows, it can replicate blood stem cells and produce B cells. This material is useful in testing of new drugs that suppress bone marrow function, and in supplying blood for transfusions. This research has been published online in the journal Biomaterials.