Stem cells treat diabetes without triggering immune response in mice
Stem cells have been developed that don’t provoke a destructive immune response, and they have been used to make pancreas cells to treat mice with a form of type 1 diabetes.
The result is a further step down the road to treating a range of medical conditions with tissues or organs that can be used “off the shelf”, instead of having to be made from scratch for each person.
To get around those issues, Schrepfer’s team has developed a technique to genetically change cells so they become invisible to the immune system.
In this method, two genes that encode surface molecules that are required for the immune system to recognise the cells as “foreign” are removed. A gene is also added so the cells make a molecule called CD47, which normally tells the immune system not to attack.
The researchers first tested a “pluripotent” version of the cells – meaning they have the potential to be turned into multiple different tissues and organs – that was created from a rhesus macaque’s cells and then inserted into the leg muscles of four other rhesus macaques.
The cells survived with no signs of immune attack for up to four months, at which point the monkeys were euthanised. In contrast, cells that were inserted that hadn’t had the genetic changes were destroyed by the monkeys’ immune systems within three weeks.
Next, the stem cells were tested as a treatment for type 1 diabetes, which is caused by the loss of pancreas cells that make the hormone insulin. The stem cells were turned into pancreas cells and put into mice with the condition, with blood tests showing the cells reduced their diabetes symptoms.
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