Singapore Reporter

One of the biggest problems that comes in embryonic stem cell therapy is the immune rejection of transplanted cells. A group of researchers from a UC San Diego-led research team seems to have found the solution for the same.

The researchers have suggested that they can make the cells invisible to the immune system. They can do the same by genetically engineering them and with the help of the same two immune-suppressing molecules will be formed.

The procedure was applied in mice, which were given human immune system. The study researchers said they put the immune functioning in an inactive state. If the approach registers success in human being then patients receiving immune-suppressing molecules made from embryonic stem cells would not be required to take strong immune-suppressing drugs.

Lead researcher Yang Xu said that the genes that were placed to produce two molecules are known as CTLA4-lg and PD-L1. The study has been published in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

“This is an especially promising approach, because it avoids the toxic side effects of the drugs now used to suppress the rejection response”, said Mitchell Kronenberg, Head of the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology.