Year 3

The use of autologous, induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cell lines in replacement therapies holds great promise in future clinical use. No need for immunosuppression, otherwise required to prevent transplanted cell rejection, would represent a substantial advance in the current clinical utilization of cell replacement therapies. In our recently completed studies, we have found that autologous porcine iPSC-derived neural precursors (NPCs) trigger a positive T-cell mediated reaction in vitro and that this response is not present if autologous T-cells are co-cultured with autologous fibroblasts. These data show that the reprogramming step induces a potent immunogenicity and that extensive screening of clonally-derived iPS-NPCs will be needed to identify clones of autologous NPCs with acceptable immunogenicity profile. Identification of differences in gene activity in differentially derived iPS-NPCs is currently in progress.