Scientists found a way to grow considerable quantities of blood in the lab by using human embryonic stem cells, a breakthrough that will surely solve several problems of the supplies of transfusion blood.

The discovery made by scientists from Advanced Cell Technology Inc. sounds very good as it practically translates into a potentially limitless supply of blood destined for transfusions. However, despite the fact that researchers acknowledged the advance, they mentioned that the most important questions regarding the discovery had yet to be answered.

The findings of the study were published Tuesday in the journal Blood. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., were also involved in the study.

The tests showed that the lab-developed cells have the natural behavior of the red blood cells, the blood’s key component because they carry oxygen throughout the body and also perform other features of normal cells. Scientists said that sometime in the near future, the embryonic stem cells will probably supply type O-negative "universal donor" red cells for transfusion as well as the rare AB-negative.

Researchers involved in this study said they managed to develop about 100 billion red cells from a single dish of stem cells. The small supplies of transfusion blood cause the delay of hundreds of surgeries in the United States each year, but the latest findings in that field may very well solve the problem.

“This is a scalable process, and there's virtually no limit to the amount of blood you could produce, given the time and resources,'' said Robert Lanza, vice president of medical and scientific development for Advanced Cell, Bloomberg reported.