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news.Geron has presented encouraging results from research studies which show that GRNCM1, the company's human embryonic stem cell-based therapeutic for the treatment of heart failure, evades direct attack by the human immune system in vitro.
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The data presented show that GRNCM1 expresses HLA class I antigen on the surface, but not HLA class II, or other surface markers required for T-cell activation, even after stimulation by inflammatory cytokines. In these studies, GRNCM1 cells were tested for susceptibility to immune effector cells and sera from several allogeneic normal healthy individuals. GRNCM1 cells did not stimulate the proliferation of T cells in vitro, a standard measure of immune recognition of foreign transplanted tissue.
Even when GRNCM1 cells were exposed to proinflammatory cytokines, such as gamma-interferon or TNF-alpha, allogeneic T cell proliferation was not induced. In addition, GRNCM1 cells were largely resistant to killing by sera of normal healthy individuals.
The data indicate that, unlike whole organ transplants, cell therapies derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) may provoke only minimal immune reactions suggesting that rejection may be controlled or prevented by short courses of low-dose immunosuppressive drugs. The work also suggests that patient-specific hESC lines may not be needed to prevent immune rejection.