A Japanese research group has said they are the first in the world to have succeeded in producing regulatory T cells, which suppress excessive immune responses, from human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.
The team, including researchers from Kyoto University, expects that the production method, if put into practice, will allow the cells, known for their effectiveness in suppressing rejection in transplant medicine, to be produced en masse to produce.
The study was published on Friday in the American journal Cell Stem Cell.
The current standard treatment for autoimmune diseases, which arise from overactive immune cells in the body, relies heavily on immunosuppressants. Treatment using regulatory T cells is attracting attention, but it is difficult to produce the cells in vitro in quantities large enough for therapeutic use.
The research group grew T cells, a type of immune cell, produced from human iPS cells, using a combination of four reagents known to encourage T cells to develop into the regulatory type.
The cells produced from iPS cells were mixed with aggressive T cells, which attack cancer, and cultured further. The team then obtained cells with immunosuppressive effects similar to those of the regulatory T cells.
Furthermore, when immune-control T cells made from iPS cells were transplanted into mice with graft-versus-host disease, in which immune cells attack their own organs, the mice’s immune responses were suppressed and their survival periods lengthened.
“Using iPS cells, we can quickly secure large quantities of cells, which will lead to the development of drugs to treat autoimmune diseases,” said team member Shin Kaneko, professor at the Center for iPS Cell Research at the University of Kyoto. and application.
