Immunological barriers to embryonic stem cell-derived therapies

Replacement of diseased tissues with healthy cells derived from embryonic stem (ES) cells has a potential to become, in the future, a better alternative to current treatments of a number of conditions characterized by irreversible tissue injury, such as heart and liver failure, diabetes mellitus and neurodegeneration. However, several obstacles have to be overcome before this new therapeutic modality becomes part of a standard clinical practice. First of all, ethical and safety issues have to be resolved, the methodologies must be developed to enable obtaining sufficient amounts of differentiated cells, and the immune rejection of allogeneic cells must be prevented in order to ensure their long-term engraftment and function. Data on immunological properties of human and murine ES cells and their differentiated derivatives are controversial, ranging from those claiming unique immune-privileged properties for ES cells to those which refute these conclusions. This indicates that much more research is required to definitively understand the immunological features and engraftment capacity of ES cell derivatives. We review here the current state of the art in this new and exciting field of ES cell immunology and discuss the implications of these findings for the development of ES cell-based therapies. Copyright (c) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel.