Cell therapy may well have taken a major leap forward. Researchers from the Institute’s Developmental Biology Center Riken in Japan, led by ophthalmologist Masayo Takahashi, have just succeeded in “reprogramming” cells taken from a monkey so that they can be transplanted into another monkey, without there being a phenomenon of rejection.
New kind of stem cells
This achievement is largely due to the work on “iPs cells”, initiated by Shinya Yamanaka and which won him the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2012.
In 2006, the Japanese scientist developed induced pluripotent cells (iPs), adult cells, basically differentiated, which were genetically reprogrammed into “pluripotent” stem cells, capable of multiplying ad infinitum and evolving. to any type of cell that makes up the human body. Like an embryonic stem cell, so to speak. This discovery has since made it possible to massively broaden the field of research into regenerative therapies.
In 2014, it was Masayo Takahashi’s turn, who tested iPs for the first time in humans. Skin cells from patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are reprogrammed in vitro into retinal epithelium cells and then transplanted into the eye of the same patient in order to ensure perfect immunological compatibility. A first success which says a lot about the prospects offered by this new type of stem cells.
Promising work
To successfully perform this allograft (graft between two separate individuals) without the possibility of rejection, the researchers explain, in the review Stem Cell Reports, having managed to bypass the cell recognition system. Called a major histocompatibility complex (MHC), it normally allows the body to distinguish the cells that belong to it from those outside it.
Scientists took cells from a first monkey, “rejuvenated” them into induced pluripotent cells, then redifferentiated them into epithelial cells, which they transplanted into another monkey. They then only had to select the cells with a common profile to make them compatible, then neutralizing the immune defense, and therefore the rejection of the transplant.
If perfecting the technique to transpose it to humans still requires further research, scientists are confident to say the least. Ultimately, “the objective would be to create iPs cell banks that could be transplanted into all those who need it,” Sunao Sugita, co-author of the work, declares Le Figaro.
The project is ambitious, but not inconceivable. The indications for cell therapy are endless and the promises are real in many areas. Clinical fields such as neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s diseases) or muscular degenerations (Duchenne myopathy) could be transformed within a few years.
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