Scientists may soon be able to produce artificial bone marrow to help treat a range of blood diseases, it has been announced.
German researchers say they have now produced a prototype of a machine to produce bone marrow.
The researchers set out to reproduce artificially the properties of bone marrow in the laboratory.
Although scientists have developed ways of culturing stem cells, the researchers say culturing the stem cells that make blood has produced elusive because of the difficulty of reproducing the conditions inside the bones.
They have created a "sponge-like" structure and added proteins similar to those found in the bones.
Led by Dr Cornelia Lee-Thedieck, the researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart, and Tübingen University, have reported their work in the journal Biomaterials.
They say it will be at least ten years before their findings can be used for treatment of diseases such as leukaemia.
A spokesman said: "The newly developed artificial bone marrow that possesses major properties of natural bone marrow can now be used by the scientists to study the interactions between materials and stem cells in detail at the laboratory.
"This will help to find out how the behaviour of stem cells can be influenced and controlled by synthetic materials.
"This knowledge might contribute to producing an artificial stem cell niche for the specific reproduction of stem cells and the treatment of leukemia in ten to fifteen years from now."
Biomimetic macroporous PEG hydrogels as 3D scaffolds for the multiplication of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Biomaterials January 2014; doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2013.10.038
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