Journal
STEM CELLS
Volume 38, Issue 11, Pages 1423-1437Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1002/stem.3269
Keywords
allogeneic; B2M; CRISPR-Cas9; HLA-G; hypoimmunogenic; natural killer cell
Categories
Funding
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [2017M621526]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [31400934, 31771132, 31800858, 31801204, 31872760]
- Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality [19JC1415100]
- Shanghai Municipal Education Commission [C120114]
- Major Program of Development Fund for Shanghai Zhangjiang National Innovation Demonstration Zone [ZJ2018-ZD-004]
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
- National Key Research and Development Program of China [2019YFA0110300, 2018YFA0108000]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Allogeneic immune rejection is a major barrier for the application of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) in regenerative medicine. A broad spectrum of immune cells, including T cells, natural killer (NK) cells, and antigen-presenting cells, which either cause direct cell killing or constitute an immunogenic environment, are involved in allograft immune rejection. A strategy to protect donor cells from cytotoxicity while decreasing the secretion of inflammatory cytokines of lymphocytes is still lacking. Here, we engineered hPSCs with no surface expression of classical human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I proteins viabeta-2 microglobulin(B2M)knockout or biallelic knockin ofHLA-G1within the frame of endogenousB2Mloci. Elimination of the surface expression of HLA class I proteins protected the engineered hPSCs from cytotoxicity mediated by T cells. However, this lack of surface expression also resulted in missing-self response and NK cell activation, which were largely compromised by expression of beta 2m-HLA-G1 fusion proteins. We also proved that the engineered beta 2m-HLA-G5 fusion proteins were soluble, secretable, and capable of safeguarding low immunogenic environments by lowering inflammatory cytokines secretion in allografts. Our current study reveals a novel strategy that may offer unique advantages to construct hypoimmunogenic hPSCs via the expression of membrane-bound and secreted beta 2m-HLA-G fusion proteins. These engineered hPSCs are expected to serve as an unlimited cell source for generating universally compatible off-the-shelf cell grafts in the future.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available