Japan Group Starts iPS Cell Supplies with Less Rejection Risk

From Jiji

June 14 2023

TOKYO – Kyoto University’s CiRA Foundation said on Wednesday that it started supplying induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells for clinical use with lower risk of causing rejection the same day. 

When a transplant is performed, rejection occurs if the type of human leukocyte antigens, or HLA, of the donor does not conform with that of the recipient.

Using genome-editing technology, the foundation altered genes related to immune cells to create the iPS cells with lower rejection risk.

The foundation’s conventional iPS cells matched about 40 pct of the Japanese population. The addition of the new cells will widen the range, likely leading to growth of the entire market of regenerative medicine.

Kyoto University professor Shinya Yamanaka, head of the foundation, successfully created human iPS cells in 2007 and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2012 for the pioneering work.