Genetic Modulation of iPS Cells in HLA Loci Using Zinc Finger Nucleases

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26670799
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Morphological basic dentistry
• Research Institution: Gifu University
• Principal Investigator: Tezuka Ken-ichi 岐阜大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (50236973)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: HLA / iPS細胞 / 歯髄細胞 / 再生医療 / 他家移植 / ゲノム編集 / 次世代シーケンサー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) plays an important role in rejection of tissues and cells transplanted from allogenic donors. In recent days, tissue transplantation is conducted without complete matching of HLA because of shortage of the donors. Instead of matching HLA types, immnosuppressants are frequently used to prevent immune reaction; however, when the immune system is suppressed, there is an increased susceptibility to infectious diseases and cancers.
To solve this problem, usage of HLA haplotype-homo (HHH) donors has been considered in iPS cell therapy. HHH donors have a couple of identical HLA gene sets, resulting in presentation of HLA molecules half in the variation. Therefore, iPS cells derived from HHH donors are expected to be successfully transplanted to many patients with less possibility of rejection.
In this study, we tried to generate iPS cells, phenotypically similar to HHH cells, by directly modulating HLA loci of non-HHH cells with Zinc Finger Nucleases (ZFNs).

Free Research Field

再生医科学