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The Immune Barriers of Cell Therapy with Allogenic Stem Cells of Embryonic Origin

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Stem Cell Engineering

Abstract

Human embryonic stem cells (ESC) provide a great hope for regenerative medicine in different diseases like neodegenerative disease, diabetes, heart, or liver failure. Immune rejection was not thought to be a major issue for cell therapy because of a low immunogenicity of fetal or embryonic cells in preliminary animal studies. However, increasing evidence suggests that this is not true, and controlling the immune response will be crucial for the success of ESC transplantation. The source of ESC is of crucial importance with regard to genetic difference between donors and recipients. Immune reaction against genetically identical origin (autologous or from identical twin) would be fully absent or negligible in contrast to immune response against allogenic transplanted cells. However, in the situation of ESC the origin of the cell would be necessarily allogenic and the immune reactivity against allogenic cells is expected to be similar to what has been learned from decades of research in the field of cell, tissue, or solid organ transplantation. In this chapter, we will first describe the risk of potential immune reactivity against ESC according to the origin of the cells. Second, we will review the immune mechanism of rejection and the current literature on the topic not only in animal models but also in humans. Finally, we will come with therapeutic approaches that can allow crossing genetic barriers of donor cells by preventing immune reaction that could lead to irreversible loss of the graft function.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Experimental Cell Therapy, Department of Genetic and Laboratory Medicine, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland

    Olivier Preynat-Seauve & Karl-Heinz Krause

  2. Immunology and Transplant Unit, Division of Immunology and Allergology and Division of Laboratory Medicine, Geneva University Hospital and Medical School, Geneva, Switzerland

    Jean Villard

Authors
  1. Olivier Preynat-Seauve
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  2. Karl-Heinz Krause
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  3. Jean Villard
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jean Villard .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. FH Aachen, Standort Jülich, Ginsterweg 1, Jülich, 52428, Germany

    Gerhard M. Artmann

  2. Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, GKT School of Biomedical Sciences, King's College London, London, SE11UL, United Kingdom

    Stephen Minger

  3. Inst. Neurophysiologie, Universitätsklinikum Köln, Robert-Koch-Str. 39, Köln, 50931, Germany

    Jürgen Hescheler

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Preynat-Seauve, O., Krause, KH., Villard, J. (2011). The Immune Barriers of Cell Therapy with Allogenic Stem Cells of Embryonic Origin. In: Artmann, G., Minger, S., Hescheler, J. (eds) Stem Cell Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11865-4_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11865-4_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-11864-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-11865-4

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