Stealthy stem cells to treat disease

 After decades of development, the dream of regenerative medicine has become a clinical reality — in part. Researchers can now cultivate stem cells in a laboratory, transform them into specialized cell types and then transplant them into people to alleviate disease.

In theory, this strategy promises an endless supply of replacement parts for ailing and ageing bodies: neurons to combat Parkinson’s disease, insulin-producing pancreatic cells to reverse type 1 diabetes, heart muscle cells to enhance cardiac function, and more.

But there’s a catch: therapies derived from stem cells must be customized to the patient — a process that is both slow and expensive. Or they can be made using donor cells. But, because the immune system tends to reject foreign cells, these ‘allogeneic’ off-the-shelf treatments require the concurrent administration of immune-dampening medicines — a strategy that raises the risk of complications such as infection and cancer.

Now, researchers are exploring a third approach — one that could fully realize the vision of mass-produced cell therapies for everyone, without the need for immune suppression.

Continue reading at Nature.